New scenario for testing: Zimbabwe 2014

[NickD]

This scenario covers the first day of a hypothetical conflict between South Africa and Zimbabwe. It is playable only from the South African side, with the goal being to establish air superiority over the country and begin the process of degrading the Zimbabwean Government's command and control network (such as it is).

The scenario provides an interesting illustration of what it means to be a regional superpower: the South African Gripens outclass everything the Zimbabwean Air Force is equipped with by a huge margin, and that's after I bulked the ZAF up by assuming that almost all its fighter aircraft are operational (according to various sources few or none actually are at the moment) and that the purchase of JF-17s which was rumoured a few years ago went ahead. The Hawk trainers (modelled using Australian Hawk 127s as the similar South African Hawk 120s aren't in the database at present) can also hold their own, though in reality the South African aircraft don't seem to operate with air to air missiles.

As it's quite possible for the SAAF player to complete the scenario without losing an aircraft (as long as they're careful during the early hours of the war), I've set the scoring so that the SAAF player receives a small but steady stream of points for destroying ZAF aircraft and is heavily penalised for losing any aircraft, or the radar ground station deployed near the border. There isn't enough time to hit all the ground targets marked on the map, so the player also needs to choose between destroying a small number of relatively high value military targets or lots of low value government targets. Shooting down civilian aircraft also attracts a large penalty.

I'd appreciate any and all comments on the scenario.

[Coiler12]

Tried it, 380 points, major victory:


SIDE: South Africa
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LOSSES:
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EXPENDITURES:
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40x Mk82 500lb LDGP
41x RB 98 IRIS-T [AIM-2000A]
3x Generic Flare Salvo [2x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
3x Generic Flare Salvo [4x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
6x 27mm Mauser BK-27 Burst [30 rnds]
10x GBU-12D/B Paveway II LGB [Mk82]
3x AIM-9M Sidewinder



SIDE: Zimbabwe
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LOSSES:
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1x Radar (Generic 2D Air Search Radar [Short-Range])
7x F-7B Fishbed
5x K-8W Karakorum
4x JF-17 Thunder
2x Building (Communication Hub)
2x MiG-23MS Flogger E
2x Mi-35M Hind
1x Radar (China Type 408C)
2x Building (Medium)
1x Building (Barracks)


EXPENDITURES:
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4x AA-2a Atoll [R-3S]
9x 23mm Gsh-23L Burst [40 rnds]
3x PL-5b [Deriv. AA-2]


Some constructive criticism.

-You should probably add some Zimbabwean army units (mobile vehicles) to seek out and destroy at least. The scenario as stood was, after winning air superiority, a repetitive "Go drop bombs, then drop more bombs, then drop more bombs, all without much resistance. If I'd microed my own fighters better, they wouldn't have gotten the chance to fire as many missiles as they did.

-A little too long. Maybe make it a few hours shorter.

-I don't know how hard you want it to be. If you want it to be more of a challenge, either add more SAMs or put all the juicy targets under the SA-15's protection. As it stood, I just went around it, hit everything else, and got the major victory. The scenario's a little too long and complicated to be a simple relaxation one, but too easy to be the most engaging.

[Mgellis]

Quite good. Challenging, in the sense that you can win, but you have to really pay attention to what your aircraft are doing, who might be sneaking up on you, etc. I played it a couple of times and each time I got careless and lost a couple of planes, which zapped my score entirely. (I did get up to major victory one time BEFORE I messed up, though, so I know you can do it.)

I would also shorten it--perhaps 12 hours total duration instead of 24--it looks like you run out of ammo pretty fast anyway so there is no need to go the full 24 hours.

Overall, though, a nice scenario. I can see this being one that people come back to every once in a while even after they've beaten it, just because it is fun to try it over one more time.

Thanks for putting it together.

[NickD]

Thank you both for those comments