1988 Global War Game Western and Southwestern Theaters AAR

[LOK32MK]

New scenario playtesting. The scenario attempts to recreate the NATO-Warsaw Pact conflict in late 1988 in the Western and Southwestern Theater of Military Operations (TVD) shortly after the end of the Iran-Iraq war but before the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Scale is 10 km/hex. Division-Brigade-Regiment level.
The scenario starts with a ceasefire. The ceasefire will be lifted between turns 2 to 6.
First turn has the Warsaw Pact move its units from their peacetime positions closer to the front. The Central Front is the most important but other fronts (Northern, and the southern flank) are also important.

[larryfulkerson]

I received the game's first turn moves from Haris and watched the entire thing. At least 10K of those events were involved in moving his planes and ships. I'll attach the first moves file available below if you want to watch the playback.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the first turn moves as I received them from Haris. Just clip off the ".txt" from the filename.

[larryfulkerson]

Haris includes a PDF file with his download for the scenario and I've attached it here below.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I ought to put together a quick reference guide to the Allies aircraft, planes and helicopters, so I can figure out which planes I should use for AS and which I should use as CS, etc. These are aircraft deployed by one nation or another in the game.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd do one for the Soviet side as well:

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

I thought I ought to put together a quick reference guide to the Allies aircraft, planes and helicopters, so I can figure out which planes I should use for AS and which I should use as CS, etc. These are aircraft deployed by one nation or another in the game.

Your analysis graphics are always great. I do this kind of exercise in modern scenarios when I'm not so familiar with the aircraft types in play and it's fascinating to see you're doing the same.

Is there an Excel version of the standard database floating around (or readily exportable)? I have an old one but it's just wwii stuff. With this you could filter down for the aircraft you have and do some work to quickly rank your aircraft by A2A vs. A2G capability and move up or down the scale depending on the level of AS you need to achieve. More efficient than having to keep going back into the equipment list and check the items one by one.

Come to think you could do a great scatter plot with that data

[larryfulkerson]

In the *.eqp file each of the items of equipment have an item number and several
characteristics as follows:

<ITEM_1678>
<NAME>Su-25 Frogfoot</NAME>
<COUNTRY>Soviet Union - 1981</COUNTRY>
<EQUIP1>269</EQUIP1>
<EQUIP2>356</EQUIP2>
<AT>4</AT>
<AP>34</AP>
<AA>24</AA> [ anti air strength ]
<DF>22</DF> [ defense strength ]
<ARTY_RNG>220</ARTY_RNG>
<EARLY_RNG>0</EARLY_RNG>
<SAM_RNG>0</SAM_RNG>
<NUKE>75000</NUKE>
<VOL>999</VOL>
<WEIGHT>0</WEIGHT>
<SHELL_W>250</SHELL_W>
<ARMOR>1</ARMOR>
<DEFENDER>1</DEFENDER>
<FLAG0>4</FLAG0>
<FLAG1>32</FLAG1>
<FLAG2>4</FLAG2>
<FLAG3>0</FLAG3>
<FLAG4>56</FLAG4>
<FLAG5>2</FLAG5>
<FLAG6>0</FLAG6>
<FLAG7>0</FLAG7>
</ITEM_1678>


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

And the values of the flags is as follows:

[ flag0 ]
<!-- Equipment Characteristics Notes-->
<!--2:Armored-->
<!--4:Active defender-->
<!--8:Reconnaissance capability-->
<!--16:Must have transport to move-->
<!--32:Engineer capability-->
<!--64:Horses-->
<!--128:Bicycles-->
[ flag1 ]
<!--1:Can transport other equipment-->
<!--2:Moves slowly without transport-->
<!--4:Motorized-->
<!--8:Roadbound-->
<!--16:High altitude anti aircraft weapon-->
<!--32:Long range equipment-->
<!--64:Light naval vessel-->
<!--128:Medium naval vessel-->
[ flag2 ]
<!--1:Heavy naval vessel-->
<!--2:Aircraft carrier-->
<!--4:Aircraft attacks at low altitude-->
<!--8:Aircraft attacks at hight altitude-->
<!--16:Amphibious equipment-->
<!--32:Naval aircraft, can operate from aircraft carriers-->
<!--64:Riverrine equipment-->
<!--128:Railroad repair capability-->
[ flag3 ]
<!--1:Night/all weather capability-->
<!--2:Special naval attack capability (torpedo only if anti-personnel is zero)-->
<!--4:Nuclear attack capability-->
<!--8:Major fording capability-->
<!--16:Rail movement only-->
<!--32:Anti shipping attacks only-->
<!--64:Slow motorized Equipment-->
<!--128:Fast motorized Equipment-->
[ flag4 ]
<!--Equipment Characteristics Notes-->
<!--1:Composite Armor-->
<!--2:Laminate Armor-->
<!--4:NBC Equipped-->
<!--8:Nuclear Equipped-->
<!--16:Kinetic Equipped-->
<!--32:PGW Equipped-->
<!--64:IFR Equipped-->
<!--128:Lightweight Equipment-->
[ flag5 ]
<!--1:Airborne Equipment-->
<!--2:Optics1-->
<!--4:Optics2-->
<!--8:Optics3-->
<!--16:Optics4-->
<!--32:Support Equipment-->
<!--64:Command Equipment-->
<!--128:Smoke Equipment-->
[ flag6 ]
<!--1:Reactive Armor-->
<!--2:Police-->
<!--4:Light Transport HH-->
<!--8:Medium Transport HH-->
<!--16:Heavy Transport HH-->
<!--32:Agile-->
<!--64:Roadbound-->
<!--128:Rocket Assisted Projectiles-->
[ flag7 ]
<!--1:Standoff-->
<!--2:Cavalry-->
<!--4:Rail RepairV1EquipmentFromLevel_64-->
<!--8:Infantry-->
<!--16:Boxy-->
<!--32:SemiBoxy-->
<!--64:DPMX anti-ship armament-->
<!--128:Torpedo-->


So the flag values mean:

<FLAG0>4</FLAG0><!--4:Active defender-->
<FLAG1>32</FLAG1><!--32:Long range equipment-->
<FLAG2>4</FLAG2><!--4:Aircraft attacks at low altitude-->
<FLAG3>0</FLAG3>[ unk ]
<FLAG4>56</FLAG4>
<!--32:PGW Equipped-->
<!--16:Kinetic Equipped-->
<!--8:Nuclear Equipped-->

<FLAG5>2</FLAG5><!--2:Optics1-->
<FLAG6>0</FLAG6>[ unk ]
<FLAG7>0</FLAG7>[ unk ]

But I have no idea how to sort the aircraft in this form. I think you're right that it would take an excel sheet to find what info we need.

[LOK32MK]

Larry
you are amazing! I forgot to mention the scenario uses TOAW IV v.4.1.0.40 and the expanded (and amazing) equipment database by Josant:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4431184

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: LOK32MK
Larry
you are amazing! I forgot to mention the scenario uses TOAW IV v.4.1.0.40 and the expanded (and amazing) equipment database by Josant:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4431184

Yes, and I went to that link and grabbed the latest version and everything is cool. I don't know how amazing I might be but part of that might be due to the medical marijuana I'm using. Right now it's "tiny shoes" but I have some "orange haze" for backup. My absolute favorite is "girl scout cookies" but that is rare for Tucson lately. I think it helps me think out of the box.

[larryfulkerson]

The air report say that the NATO side has 215 aircraft, including helicopters. I'm pretty sure the WP side has more than that. I'll have to take a look.

[larryfulkerson]

The range of the F-16 Fighting Falcon is ordinarily 550 hexes but that extends beyond the edge of the map and I don't need that much to cover the AO I want them to operate in so of the F-16 unit stationed at Bobo in Norway, I reduced it to 160 to mostly cover the Murmansk area and ignore everything else. As you can see, the F-16 is one of the better NATO fighters which is what is needed to counter the Soviet bombers and fighters near Murmansk.

[larryfulkerson]

I've finally started moving units after having spent some time reading the PDF file and constructing those quick reference charts. I've come to a unit that I think is supposed to be a submarine that is built around a Missle Corvette unit. It's got a significant anti-shipping capability ( 450 ) so it's going to play a key role in my effort to battle the Soviet navy. I'm not sure but I think the Soviet navy has more ships than NATO does. I'll have to look into that. The OOB says that I have 1329 total units on the map and a good proportion of that is ships and planes.

[larryfulkerson]

According to the OOB I have 2 Airmobile Hvy Weapons units, one from the UK and one French and they are similar with the kinds and numbers of the various types of equipment, both have organic airlift, multiple attack helicopters, organic arty, etc. These are valuable units and I can see me using them a lot to put out bushfires as a mobile defensive unit. I can see that I need to have a look at the insides of Soviet units to know exactly what I'm up against.

[larryfulkerson]

So far there's only one airmobile unit and it's Spanish and it reminds me of the Airmobile Hvy Weapons units I studied previously but this unit has organic transportation in the form of trucks and VEC's etc. I need to do a sandbox test to see if the vehicles fly when the unit flies.

[larryfulkerson]

Okay, I moved that Spanish unit to an airfield a long distance from the origin and I notice right away that none of the VEC scouts made the trip and the number of trucks is down significantly. It's movement range was 12 before but now it's down to 7, because of lack of trucks I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

I have two amphibious units one French and one Italian. Their equipment is similiar and both have large ferry values. These guys are like heavily armed pontoon units. And there are some organic engineers to help fix broken bridges.

[LOK32MK]

Warsaw Pact 2nd turn. Still in ceasefire. More troop movements to get the units to the front.
Here are some notes on the design philosophy. The map was made used the Hexgrid generator and Google Earth (using overlays for topography, landcover etc. and population statistics for cities).
The OOB came from a myriad of on-line and other sources that I have accumulated over the decades (I started this scenario playing the GDW The Third World War board games). I tried to be as faithful to the OOBs as I could but some minor adjustments were made when necessary.
Initially I tried to be very precise with the TOEs and used the Military Balance publications to make sure I did not exceed specific equipment holdings for most countries. However, some adjustments were necessary for TOAW. For example, air mobile (air assault) units were allocated their own helicopter transports (significantly exceeding helicopter transport holdings) to improve play. Some weapon systems do not exist in the TOAW database and appropriate substitutes were used.
For air units I tried to separate air units by aircraft type whenever possible. Reconnaissance aircraft were included in the OOB but air transport aircraft (e.g. C-130 or C-5s) were not used.
For naval units I used the ship classes in the expanded database whenever possible (not all ship classes are available). All subs use the naval task force icon. For submarines I used ship classes that have high anti-ship ratings as Larry pointed out. For example, SSNs are Missile cruisers, with higher anti-ship rating, SS are missile frigates or missile corvettes depending on the ship class. No landing craft were used in the OOB and there was no way to model SSGNs.
Nuclear weapons are modeled as fixed or mobile missile units for land based missiles. SSBNs are naval task force units with ICBMs that are deployed in special sea hexes with roads.
I want to thank Larry for his detailed analysis and for play testing the scenario.

[larryfulkerson]

For T2 Haris is moving a lot of ground troops to the Murmansk area. Nato doesn't have much in the way of defense up there except for that one Norweigeon unit [ the blue one on the left near the coast ]. I moved some F-16's within range of this area just in case.

[larryfulkerson]

Haris has moved a lot of ground troops to the border as far as they can go. I'm wondering if I should start breaking bridges already.