Various Air Battle Scenarios

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To provide some variety from the long haul that is Northern Fury, I've been playing the set of 'Air Battle' scenarios by Mark Gellis in the Community Pack. They're a pretty mixed bag, but mostly have the merit of unusual settings and being small enough to play in one session. I'll do a separate post here for each one.

First up is Air Battle over Berat-Kucove, which is set in a hypothetical Albanian Civil War in 2021. The country is divided into Northern and Southern factions, with Russia and Serbia supporting the former and Greece the latter. As commander of the Southern Albanian Air Force, you've been warned that the North is about to attack your base at Berat-Kucove.

To stop this, you have eight ex-Greek Mirage 2000s, not all of which are ready immediately, plus some Sparrow Skyguard SAMs.

The North made an initial attack with 4 Foxhounds and 4 Fencers. The former were a tough challenge for the initial four Mirages and I lost three fighters in exchange for wiping-out the attacking force. Southern losses cost you 40 VP and Northern kills score you just 20.

In the second phase, the enemy threw-in 8 Galeb and 8 Orao attack planes, which got fairly close by virtue of having no radars to emit and came in from the NE and NW in two groups. Once my second flight of Mirages were able to respond, however, it became a turkey shoot, with all bandits knocked-down to seal a Major Victory with a score of +360.

In truth, it's a tall order for the North, with four MiG-31s needing to protect 20 attack planes from 8 Mirages, with the additional complication of the South's SAMs. Still, it's hard for the South to avoid losses and a Triumph would have required no more than two.

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Next exhibit is Air Battle over Metema. This one presumes a war between Ethiopia and Sudan in 2019, possibly over the former's plans to dam the Nile. As Ethiopian commander, you have to secure air superiority over the border town of Doka, near Metema and then destroy Sudanese ground targets in the area.

To do this, you have 6 Su-27 Flanker fighters and, ready later, the same number of MiG-23 attack planes carrying old-fashioned iron bombs. There is a recon infantry company near Doka to provide targetting info.

The infantry have a dangerous job, as there are several units of Sudanese tanks and mechanised infantry in the town, along with MANPADs of Chinese design (FN-6) and a radar site. In the air, the Sudanese also use ex-Russian equipment - MiG-29s based in Khartoum.

I fed-in my fighters two at a time to avoid being left short if the enemy proved cagey. Taking a similar approach, Sudan sent up two Fulcrums. I was confident but, for some reason, all of the Alamos fired by our planes missed or went blind despite my keeping my radars trained on the targets, negating my range advantage. Enemy missiles were outrun at Afterburner. Forced to close to Archer range, I got on the tail of one Fulcrum as the other withdrew - only for it to turn round and score two kills with two shots!. We did at least shoot it down, but it left me 25 VP adrift.

A second encounter cost each side a plane and the same problem recurred with the Alamos while not seeming to affect the Sudanese. My best theory was that my missiles were being foxed by enemy defensive chaff and, because my planes were on Auto Evade = No, they weren't using such countermeasures.

I then sent-up one of my remaining pair of Flankers and this restored the situation by taking-out two MiG-29s and staying alive. This ended the Sudanese air effort. Luck plays a significant role in smallish scenarios like this.

I then sent-in a single MiG-23 on a recon flight, but its Ground Search radar proved useless and I stupidly forgot about ground elevation and lost the plane to the MANPADs. It was clearly necessary to go in at 19,000' to be safe, which didn't augur well for the bombing missions.

Some nervous scouting with the infantry eventually pinpointed the Sudanese positions, which were all using civilian buildings as shields. The Floggers did their best, but the bombing was predictably inaccurate and I only managed to destroy the radar and a unit of mechanised infantry for 5 VP each. Lots of civilian buildings were hit, but none were destroyed, so no VP lost.

This left it as a draw, with a score of +10. Ethiopia gained air superiority over Doka and inflicted some losses on the Sudanese Army, but not enough to be decisive. The mistake with the Flogger recon cost me 25 VP, but this probably didn't affect the outcome as I would think I needed +50 to win.

Overall, quite a tough scenario.

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Next is Air Incident over Mageroya. This returns to Northern Fury territory in North Norway and is the least satisfactory scenario in the set, being very one-sided. It is 2016 and the Russians have been harrassing Norwegian aircraft in the Arctic region. Norway has warned them that any further incursions would be met by force and you have the task of implementing this insane directive.

It is insane because you have precisely two F-16s with a total of four 40nm ranged AMRAAMs to do the job, supported distantly by a NATO tanker. To stop you, Russia fields three hypothetical MiG-35 Foxglove fighters, which have 160nm search radar, 160nm ranged Arrow missiles and a manoeuvrability rating of 5.5!!! In case this isn't enough, they also have a state-of-the-art Growler SAM battery right on the border, with a range of 215nm, which covers the entire engagement area over the island of Mageroya. They also have tanker support. The actual incursion comes from a Backfire bomber.

The only advantage you have is that you can choose when to attack, as the Russians start Unfriendly and won't fire first. Having sized-up the opposition, I decided that my only hope was to have one plane (whichever was nearer) fire at the Backfire when it entered the exclusion zone, then turn-off radars and run like hell. With a LOT of luck, this might even work. It didn't. Both AMRAAMs wretchedly missed on 60% chances and, although the non-attacking F-16 JUST got away, the other was downed by the instantly-responding Growler for an outrageous 100 VP.

If anyone has found another way to win this, I'd be intrigued to know about it...

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From the worst to the best. Airstrikes on Zinder is actually quite interesting. It is 2025 and a civil war has broken-out in Niger, with the region of Zinder seeking to secede. Perhaps because the rebel ZLA bear too close a resemblance to Boko Haram, this has alarmed the US and the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States). The Nigerian Air Force is ordered to hit Zinderi ground forces around the eponymous city and its airport.

To do this, you have some pretty outmoded equipment, which is part of the scenario's charm. There are 8 Chinese-built Airguard fighters, which can carry PL-9 air-to-air missiles, bombs or rockets, plus the same number of Alpha Jet attack planes, which only have bombs and rockets. The USA has provided an unarmed Reaper UAV to do recon under AI control.

Enemy forces are rather modest, consisting of a single Su-25 Frogfoot attack plane and some Grail MANPADs. Yet it still isn't straightforward, even with three days to do the job.

For starters, all of your aircraft start in SW or SE Nigeria and lack the range to hit the targets from there. Instead, they have to move to Kano Airport in the N of the country...but Kano totally lacks munitions and the planes have longish ready times. You therefore have to fly to Kano, rest, attack, then stage at Kano before returning to the remote supply airfields for new weapons. In addition, the Alpha Jets can't make it to Kano unless they carry a light load of two 250kg bombs each, plus drop tanks.

The second problem is the Frogfoot. In a quirky situation, it flies at low altitude, where your PL-9s can't reach (puts a whole new meaning on the phrase 'Chinese junk'!). If you descend to engage with cannon, the Su-25 has two Aphid missiles to make it very hazardous for you. On the other hand, it can't fly high enough to engage you at altitude, which means the UAV is safe, as are approaching attack planes. Trouble is that your bombers will need to dive to 10,000' to attack (and stay safe from the Grails) and will then be subject to interception. So the affair became a dance, with planes monitoring the Su-25 while others attacked from where it wasn't. As I said, interesting. It all ended when the Frogfoot landed and I was lucky enough to clobber it on the ground.

It was otherwise a matter of organisation and patience, chipping away at the targets from a safe height and making sure the Alpha Jets didn't dive suicidally after releasing their bombs, as they are pre-set to do. In this way, I flattened everything that moved apart from the SAMs and also destroyed some of the airport installations. Rockets were more accurate than bombs against mobile targets and I used them by preference in this role.

There was also a little surprise, which I won't reveal. Suffice to say that I reacted in time to deal with it and score some more VP. The final result was a Triumph, with a score of +250.

[Dimitris]

Very nice writeups, thanks!