The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

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cf_dallas
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The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by cf_dallas »

((UPDATED WITH RELEASE 2))

New scenario for testing... it will be episode two of a "Cold War 1984" campaign, if I ever get around to the other scenarios. I've got three sketched out, all from the Soviet side, and none (so far) in Europe.

I haven't fully play-tested it yet, but I think I've worked out all the timing and events. I don't know if it's actually possible to get a Triumph, feedback in particular on difficulty would be very welcome. And definitely let me know if you find problems.

*****************************************************

01 March 1984

Image

Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s tensions between superpowers rose steadily, reaching a fevered pitch during 1983. Reagan's "Evil Empire" speech in March was followed in April by the largest US Pacific Fleet exercise since the invasion of Okinawa. Soviet troops pushed repeatedly into the Panjshir valley and other contested areas of Afghanistan. Progress on arms control stalled, then the Soviets abandoned participation entirely. In September KAL007 was brought down in the Sea of Japan, with the Soviets first denying involvement then claiming it was on an intelligence mission for the US. In November the United States stood up Pershing II IRBM units in Europe in response to Soviet SS-20 deployments. NATO also undertook Exercise Able Archer, meant to test command and control in a nuclear war. Soviet intelligence believed it to be a prelude to attack and the year ended with the world nearing a precipice.

During the winter hard-liners from the KGB and Ministry of Defense replaced Yuri Andropov at the head of the Soviet Union, capitalizing on the latter's ongoing health problems. Unrest in Europe is rising and actions by Soviet allies in the Middle East and in Central America, all encouraged by these men, have pushed the world to the razor's edge of war.

Since mid-February Cuban and Ethiopian troops have swept through most of the Horn of Africa, pushing Somali troops and their American advisors ahead of them. Resistance stiffened and that assault has stalled 200 miles outside Mogadishu, with the Somalis holding stubbornly along the coast.

The Soviet government had decided to support the Cuban initiative in the region, deploying Naval Infantry to land at the coastal town of Obbia and break the deadlock. You command Soviet Navy Indian Ocean forces, including a Pacific Fleet carrier group centered on Minsk, Black Sea Fleet amphibious units just departing Yemen, and various air and naval units.

It is expected that the United States will attempt to reinforce Somalia, most likely in the Mogadishu area; they may also choose to oppose Soviet deployments. They are known to have one Carrier Battle Group and one heavy amphibious unit in the Indian Ocean. There may be other NATO naval units, and air and submarine forces will likely also play a role.

Total Units: >300 units total; 24 ships, 4 subs, 94 aircraft in player control
Scenario Time: 72 hours 


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Randomizer
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by Randomizer »

Minor startup glitch. Missions Shuttle - Suez-Mombasa and Shuttle - Suez-Seychelles for Side Neutral have crossing paths and trigger that error message when the scenario loads. Moving one reference point in the editor fixed both missions. Looks like an interesting situation and looking forward to trying it in the player mode.

-C
AlexGGGG
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by AlexGGGG »

No ARM missiles for reloads in most Soviet magazines, is that intentional?
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by cf_dallas »

ORIGINAL: AlexGGGG

No ARM missiles for reloads in most Soviet magazines, is that intentional?

I'll take a look... my intention was to provide a variety of guided weapons for the Su-17s but limited quantities, particularly at the bases in Somalia (they're essentially forward operating locations). Socotra should be more fully stocked.

The Badgers are specifically meant to be a one-shot silver bullet. The idea is they just landed from their base in Crimea, forward deployed for this one particular situation. I may tweak that mechanic, or at least add a briefing to make it more clear.
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AlexGGGG
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by AlexGGGG »

Well I messed it up. Had to fall back on invulnerable Victor subs.

to elaborate more,
Soviet AAW is kinda worthless against Phantoms/Sparrows.
Soviet SAM is worthless against Harpoon/Shrike combined attack.
Yak Forger is a joke. More specifically, its missiles are utter carp.

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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by AlexGGGG »

Finally, I scored Average 85, after killing Tarawa, damaging US carrier (with the loss of all air wing but I did not think I sunk the carrier itself), having Minsk badly damaged, and arriving with amphibs. And all of this was done thanks to invulnerability of Victor subs which are running deeper than NATO torpedoes.
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by cf_dallas »

I'm playing it through this afternoon... It took 4 hours to find Tarawa, 6 to find Midway, somewhere in there I found the Brits. Now it's patience, establish where everyone's going, and get everyone into position for one devastating blow. In theory. :-)
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by Randomizer »

I am enjoying this scenario quite a bit. Certainly the Soviets lack scouting assets; I would give a lot for a pair of Hormone B in the Minsk air group.

The Match is Lit highlights likely issues that the Red Banner Fleet may have faced in a power-projection situation far from home. The devil is in the details and the lack of things like scouting helos and anti-radiation missiles seem to ring true. When things begin the Soviet force mix looks fine for the intended mission, supporting Cuban forces fighting in a Third-World environment but then the threat changes to a First World NATO one. Uh, oh.

I will confess that I seldom play CMANO specifically to win according to points, rather I really enjoy the interaction between weapons' systems along with planning and trying to execute operations that are doctrinal for the time and opponents in the scenario as written. In this case I suspect that the job of the Red Banner Fleet may very well have become impossible once NATO becomes belligerent. That said as the scenario unfolds, I'm being challenged to conduct combat ops in a situation that probably exceeds the capabilities of my force mix. Not an unreasonable if hypothetical 'Cold War goes Hot' position for a Soviet force to find itself in.

Whatever happens next, I suspect that my forces have their work cut out for them.

-C
AlexGGGG
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by AlexGGGG »

No Bears for recon in this scenario, yeah. I had to make do with Il-38s instead.
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by cf_dallas »

Well... there's a reason I called it Release 0. Release 1 attached, and 1st post in the thread updated.

I finished building the "mechanics" of the scenario in mid-April... units, bases, missions, AI scripting, etc. Had a heck of a lot of fun doing it, too. Then for three weeks I picked away at the 'atmosphere": creative writing. The HQ communication that was supposed to come in every 12 hours. On my play-through today... nothing.

Turns out I created the triggers, I created the actions, and I was so excited to finally be done that I forgot to actually create the events.

So, changelog:
- Fixed the neutral mission issue that Randomizer spotted
- Added minimal ARM reloads at Su-17 fwd operating location
- Actually included the freaking communication from Moscow

Bigger picture, this isn't supposed to be a cake-walk. But if you actually follow your orders (the ones that should now be working... sorry!) the Su-17s are even harder to use. By the time you have authorization to start sinking NATO ships the Tarawa is 500+ nm from Socotra; the Midway never even gets that close. You'd have to stage them out of Galkayo and be patient... the two groups don't get close enough to Galkayo until there's <16 hours left in the scenario.

I'm considering two paths:

A total rebuild to tighten the 'geography', bring everyone closer together. But I think that might negate the feel of an undersized Russian fleet searching a very large ocean for a potentially vulnerable US CV... basically the challenge that Randomizer was talking about.

A bit of prompting in the briefing so that a less-creative Admiral will know to shift short-range forces from Socotra to Galkayo.

Thoughts?
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by Randomizer »

In Soviet Union when Moscow communicates, you freaking...

Speaking solely for myself, I'm a big fan of the big-pond-small-fish scenario style while events and detailed orders certainly add to the atmosphere of the situation. One small suggestion regarding the briefing and the British Task Group. The composition and location (found them using a May on a Sea Control mission) would indicate that at some point in their deployment they probably dropped a hook in Zanzibar, Tanzania or Kenya, in which case the Soviets would probably have had pretty solid intelligence on the group composition to go with the approximate location provided.

The force levels, time and space aspects seem fine. My assessment is that the Player has one very powerful pulse of SSM firepower that can be used against one NATO group but the main problem is lack of scouting resources coupled with the necessity to protect the amphibious forces and facilitating their transit to the objective area. These represent possibly conflicting tasks and options; a nicely realistic tactical problem for a detached force far from home facing an unexpected opponent. It is unlikely that the Charlie or the Badger force can be decisive by themselves but they may provide valuable attrition provided a suitable NATO target can be located and tracked for enough time to stage an attack. There's that scouting problem again...

Haven't looked in the editor but hopefully the NATO forces have randomized starting locations, please disregard if this is the case or consider the idea if they do not. As for rebasing air assets, perhaps a time-triggered message that technical support and suitable ordnance is available at Galkayo from a certain time. Maybe consider random start locations for the Player forces as a couple of hundred miles here or there might change things on a replay.

The new version means that a fresh start is probably in the cards but in my opinion, you have a solid foundation built already.

-C
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by cf_dallas »

This one's on ice for a little bit:
tm.asp?m=4082628

If anyone wants to try the latest version (nearly ready for release, I think) it's attached to that thread.
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by wild_Willie2 »

Interesting scenario but how do you even find the NATO fleet as your recon assets get shot down before they can come even close? The war basically starts as soon as the Skoryy get sunk (within 2 hours of starting) and I have a hell of a time finding the NATO fleet because of this.
Is this a design issue or a bug in the programming?

The force deployment in this scenario is a bit lopsided. If I would be playing this from the NATO side, the Soviet fleets would be sunk without losses within 18 hours...

W.
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by magi »

Should try using commercial vessels that are friendly to the Soviets side ala gunner...... And more red subs on patrol.....
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by cf_dallas »

ORIGINAL: wild_Willie2

Interesting scenario but how do you even find the NATO fleet as your recon assets get shot down before they can come even close? The war basically starts as soon as the Skoryy get sunk (within 2 hours of starting) and I have a hell of a time finding the NATO fleet because of this.
Is this a design issue or a bug in the programming?

The force deployment in this scenario is a bit lopsided. If I would be playing this from the NATO side, the Soviet fleets would be sunk without losses within 18 hours...

W.

It's a known issue, NATO should not consider USSR hostile. I'm planning to get a fix posted before the weekend.

Re lopsided: That's why you're not playing the NATO side. Where's the fun in clobbering an overmatched opponent? :-)

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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by Randomizer »

I like the challenge and am looking forward to the new version. There is zero reasons to assume that a commander, particularly on detached service in peacetime would have all the assets that would be desirable and it's really easy to see that hostilities could engulf a force that lack essential elements.

Scenario authors should resist the temptation to add everything that might be useful, particularly at the start of the scenario and the Player should have to work for the win.

-C
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by Russian Heel »

This is by far one of my favorite scenarios I have played for this game, and I have had it since release day. I think the provided force is quite realistic and makes for a very interesting challenge for the soviet player. I've made a couple small suggestions to cf_dallas regarding the Soviet forces, which he informed me he will implement. I really appreciate the forces he gave to the Soviet player and avoided any temptation to give the newest best stuff.

This scenario is great for anybody who likes the thrill of the hunt and taking time to set up an attack. I'm looking forward to the other scenarios he has mentioned.
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by cf_dallas »

Thanks for the kind words, folks... this one has been fun. And a huge shout-out to Russian Heel for helping with realistic Soviet force structure.

Release 2 attached here (and updated on the first post). change notes:
- Fixed "NATO immediately hostile" issue
- Updated forces to more realistically match typical Soviet deployments and what would/could have been in the IO in 1984... yes, you get Bears. No, you still don't get multiple regiments of Backfires. :-)
- Adjusted the arrival and sequencing of reinforcements and deployment options to provide better flow
- Fixed the problem AlexGGGG noted with submarines and air-dropped torpedoes
- Update the initial and in-game briefings a bit.

One note: Do not delete the "Galkayo Ferry" or "Dire Dawa Ferry" missions, or you will lose a large portion of your offensive punch.
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by Randomizer »

Thanks for the scenario, I fully concur with comrade Russian Heel's assessment of the situation as presented.

Without yet trying Version 2 the only thing that I would add is using the SBR to create a Delta Template file for the scenario. This ensures that rebuilding with future databases is seamless as it keeps the magazine loads as intended by the scenario author. Not a problem for those who use unlimited ordnance but a scenario that is rebuilt with a new database but without a template will lose the unique magazine loads and any customized platform changes. I recommend that all scenario authors create and upload a Delta Template file with their efforts.

-C
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RE: The Match Is Lit - Indian Ocean 1984

Post by stolypin »

This will be my weekend scenario.
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