New Scenario for Testing "The Red Banner Northern Fleet"
Posted: Wed May 25, 2022 7:18 pm
Submitted for your approval:
This is my baby. I have been working on this scenario since CMANO. This is actually the second iteration. It is huge. It may in fact be unplayable. Nonetheless, like a child, I love this scenario'
So my interest in modern naval gaming began in the 1980s with two games. The first was the Harpoon miniatures rules. The second was Second Fleet. My good friend (who was single) set up the grand campaign on the floor in his spare bedroom and we played it all the way through. We had a great time and it is still one of my fondest gaming memories. Since I first purchased CMANO I have always wondered if I could design a scenario to recapture the grand campaign nature of Second Fleet. As I said before I started once and tabled the idea. But now I am done or at least as close to done as I can get for now.
My guidelines for setting this beastie up were based on the assumption that the USSR would have several months of planning and preparation before the "balloon went up". I was therefore rather generous with the readiness levels for the units involved. I generally used an 80% availability rate except for some of the older platforms. The aircraft have been stood down, tuned up, and crews rested for 100% of peace time OOB. That may change as you start using them. Most of the units are in port or at peace time bases. The scenario actually starts three days before hostilities are initiated which gives the player some time to move his units into the points where they can do the most good. Just getting all the ships undocked and the aircraft moved around took me several hours of game time to accomplish in my play test. To me this is part of the fun as you get to set everything up the way you want vice the way the scenario designer deemed proprer.
I used several sources to be as close as possible to the actual OOB, but with time passing some information was just no longer available. I was forced to just "make do" with some ship names and bases. If any one sees a glaring error, I would appreciate the input
Just like in Second Fleet, the player gets to choose his own doctrine at the beginning of the game: defensive, limited offensive, or full offensive. Depending on which doctrine is selected, new tasks/missions will become available. There is a small amount of land combat that is possible, but I have kept it to mostly small unit affairs that shouldn't overtax CMO's limited ability to handle such matters. I opted to just make this scenario cover the first week of the war as I figured trying to model AI behavior beyond seven days was just impossible.
I have included a text document with the doctrinal extra missions for player's to refer to as the window detailing them only appears once. I could add a Special Action where it would pop up after doctrine is selected. In fact, now that I though of this, I will add it to the finished product
I cannot post this scenario without thanking all the folks who frequent the Lua Legion sub forum. Their patience in answering my sometimes outright stupid questions has been the only thing that allowed this scenario to reach its current state. A special thanks to Knighthawk75 for all the tips and outright code writing. In a way this is as much his scenario as it is mine.
I realize this type of scenario probably does not have mass appeal. I have contemplated that no one beyond myself would have an interest in playing it. Even if I am the only person who will play this monster, I felt like I had to share it. So be good friends like when some one shows you their pictures of their ugly baby. Just smile and say, "cute kid!"
Thanks for reading,
Tim
This is my baby. I have been working on this scenario since CMANO. This is actually the second iteration. It is huge. It may in fact be unplayable. Nonetheless, like a child, I love this scenario'
So my interest in modern naval gaming began in the 1980s with two games. The first was the Harpoon miniatures rules. The second was Second Fleet. My good friend (who was single) set up the grand campaign on the floor in his spare bedroom and we played it all the way through. We had a great time and it is still one of my fondest gaming memories. Since I first purchased CMANO I have always wondered if I could design a scenario to recapture the grand campaign nature of Second Fleet. As I said before I started once and tabled the idea. But now I am done or at least as close to done as I can get for now.
My guidelines for setting this beastie up were based on the assumption that the USSR would have several months of planning and preparation before the "balloon went up". I was therefore rather generous with the readiness levels for the units involved. I generally used an 80% availability rate except for some of the older platforms. The aircraft have been stood down, tuned up, and crews rested for 100% of peace time OOB. That may change as you start using them. Most of the units are in port or at peace time bases. The scenario actually starts three days before hostilities are initiated which gives the player some time to move his units into the points where they can do the most good. Just getting all the ships undocked and the aircraft moved around took me several hours of game time to accomplish in my play test. To me this is part of the fun as you get to set everything up the way you want vice the way the scenario designer deemed proprer.
I used several sources to be as close as possible to the actual OOB, but with time passing some information was just no longer available. I was forced to just "make do" with some ship names and bases. If any one sees a glaring error, I would appreciate the input
Just like in Second Fleet, the player gets to choose his own doctrine at the beginning of the game: defensive, limited offensive, or full offensive. Depending on which doctrine is selected, new tasks/missions will become available. There is a small amount of land combat that is possible, but I have kept it to mostly small unit affairs that shouldn't overtax CMO's limited ability to handle such matters. I opted to just make this scenario cover the first week of the war as I figured trying to model AI behavior beyond seven days was just impossible.
I have included a text document with the doctrinal extra missions for player's to refer to as the window detailing them only appears once. I could add a Special Action where it would pop up after doctrine is selected. In fact, now that I though of this, I will add it to the finished product
I cannot post this scenario without thanking all the folks who frequent the Lua Legion sub forum. Their patience in answering my sometimes outright stupid questions has been the only thing that allowed this scenario to reach its current state. A special thanks to Knighthawk75 for all the tips and outright code writing. In a way this is as much his scenario as it is mine.
I realize this type of scenario probably does not have mass appeal. I have contemplated that no one beyond myself would have an interest in playing it. Even if I am the only person who will play this monster, I felt like I had to share it. So be good friends like when some one shows you their pictures of their ugly baby. Just smile and say, "cute kid!"
Thanks for reading,
Tim
