Scenario Play Test: The Cold Planet #1: The Red Sun Illuminates Taiwan

[SunlitZelkova]

In a world where the COVID-19 pandemic never happened, Sino-American relations have continued to deteriorate.

In early 2027, a massive earthquake devastates the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. With the US economy in recession and key US naval facilities heavily damaged, China decides to act upon its promise to solve the "Taiwan question" before 2049.

Notes-

1. Complexity and difficulty settings are WIP. They can be changed upon suggestion to do so.

2. Some Taiwanese ships lack names and only have a pennant number. This is because I am unfamiliar with Taiwanese ship naming conventions.

3. You are not able to attack Taiwanese highway dispersal strips. This because I could not figure out how to make multi-unit airfields hidden and there would probably be multiple dispersal strips in real life, making attack very difficult.

Suggestions for improvement and comments are obviously welcome. Please do not hesitate to criticize, I am completely open to even large changes to the scenario it improve it.

NOTE- The scenario has been heavily modified. See most recent post.

[SunlitZelkova]

I have updated the scenario.

Changes-

1. Cyberattack now actually occurs, knocking comms out for a large number of SAM and radar units. Previously it was assumed the cyberattack was either defeated or negated through analog communication means

2. Updated to the latest DB (DB3000 v492), thus requires update 1.04 to play.

3. Changed J-6s to J-6 UAVs as a result of its addition to the DB

4. Added more ammunition to bases

As there was no replies when I first posted it, I thought I would provide a little more info about the scenario.

You are in command of a few regiments of the PLAAF, supported by some PLARF and PLAN units. You task is striking targets in the northern third of Taiwan.

Order of battle-

25th Air Brigade- J-10C x 18
41st Air Brigade- J-11BG x 16
8th Air Brigade- J-31A x 20
83rd Air Brigade- JH-7AII x 18
3rd Platoon- J-6W UAV x 24
5th Platoon- J-6W UAV x 24
2nd UAV Regiment Detachment 1- GJ-11R UAV x 4
77th Regiment- KJ-200 x 3

Targets consist of a couple air bases, government/leadership targets in Taipei, and the entire air defence network, along with the navy bases and ships in the region.

This is intended to be the beginning of a collection of scenarios/campaign looking at a war in the Pacific in 2027.

[SunlitZelkova]

I have made an update based on further play testing. This will likely be the final version.

Changes-

1. Added ballistic missile reloads

2. Added even more ammunition and extended duration by 12 hours

3. Completely changed title as a result of a rework of the scenarios/campaign. The campaign is titled "The Cold Planet" as this is no longer intended to represent merely the Pacific conflict in the world of the scenarios. The scenario is titled "The Red Sun Illuminates Taiwan". The previous plan was to split the whole Taiwan strike scenario into three smaller scenarios but this would have been repetitive so I scrapped the idea

4. Significantly edited the briefing. It was very wall-of-text-like previously, it is a bit more organized now

5. Added some more special messages

I also edited the complexity and difficulty rating as part of the description.

[AndrewJ]

The briefing indicates that the cyber-attack will happen at 17:11, but the actual event trigger is set for 17:41. Which is correct?

[SunlitZelkova]

It should be 17:11. Thanks for catching it!

[SunlitZelkova]

Here is an updated version with the time fixed.

[SunlitZelkova]

Now that HGVs are available in the commercial version, I have updated the scenario to include the DF-17.

Also, the targets having been slightly changed. The two major underground command centers in the Zhongshan District of Taipei are now included in the target list.

Feedback and comments are welcome!

Requires Build 1243.5 to play.