Scenario Concept: "Meeting Halfway"

[HalfLifeExpert]

I've had an idea for a different kind of scenario that I feel that I do not have the skill set to build effectively, so I thought I would share it freely so that any of you so inclined can take a shot at it if it sounds appealing to you.

My idea for this scenario, in a nutshell, is fundamentally a logistics challenge, with combat (be it "real" or "exercise", see below) being a secondary consideration.

The idea is a sort of transfer of a US CVN Carrier Air Wing, and possibly considerable ordinance/aviation fuel, from one carrier to another in the vast eastern pacific between Hawaii and the US west coast). I see two possible contexts/setups for this scenario:

Variant A) In the first days of a US-China war, the facilities at Pearl Harbor are damaged from "bolt from the blue" cruise missile attacks, and additionally, a USN carrier west of Hawaii received a torpedo hit from a PLAN submarine, despite that sub being destroyed shortly thereafter. The hit is not nearly enough to threaten loss of the carrier, but it is enough to put it out of the war for some time. With the facilities on Oahu under threat or damaged, the carrier is to be sent back to either Bremerton or San Diego for repairs. Think USS Saratoga's first torpedo hit not long after the start of the Pacific War.

In response to this necessity, a carrier that has just finished a refit in San Diego or Bremerton, and that does not have a large (or any) CVW yet, is to rendezvous with the damaged carrier, where the aircraft, along with ordinance and perhaps some aircraft support crew, are to be transferred at sea to the carrier from San Diego or Bremerton.

This would require not only management of sending planes and helicopters from one flattop to another, but also UNREP/cargo removing ordinance from one carrier to another at sea, with use of both helicopters and logistics ships. The actual enemy threat would be possible Chinese and/or Russian subs out to prevent the rapid return of another US carrier to the Western Pacific, as well as try to finish off the damaged one. Another possible threat could be enemy "merchant cruisers" in the form of one or two cargo ships equipped with container-hidden anti-ship missile launchers or Kamikaze drones.

This variant could easily be adapted for an earlier Cold War I gone hot in the 1980s, with the antagonist being the USSR rather than the modern PLAN.

Variant B) Essentially the same mechanics as the above scenario, except it is a sort of US Navy "Fleet Problem" exercise for experimenting with such a mass transfer at sea between two supercarriers. The reasoning that static port/airbase facilities potentially being under threat in the event of war could make such at-sea transfers valuable for strategic flexibility.

The "enemy" in this scenario would be US and/or allied submarines with the same mission profile as the real "enemy" in variant A.


As I said above, while I think this could be an interesting new sort of scenario, I do not believe I am capable enough to seriously attempt building it myself, so if this sounds like an interesting idea to you, I encourage you to give it a try!

[Transient]

Hi HLE,

Interesting scenario ideas you came up with, especially with the logistics as the main gameplay focus of the scenarios.

I once entertained the idea of a Westpac scenario with the player responsible for the logistics of rearming the USMC and/or USAF units conducting their distributed operations against PLA forces within the 1st island chain.

The idea is that the USMC/USAF forces directly conducting operations against PLA forces would not be under player control and would be under AI, but their success (and the player's mission success) would be directly dependent on the player's ability to continue keeping them resupplied.

The player would have only token combat forces necessary to provide selective escort of some of his logistics forces.

The above idea would require a level of LUA programming waay above my near non-existent LUA programming skills, so naturally it got shelved.

Hopefully someone will be able to produce the logistics focused scenarios similar to yours or mine.

I would be willing to pay for that! HInt hint, CMO team.

[Kushan04]

The concept is interesting but a few points to consider:

1) There are huge naval magazines in both Washington and California where ships will stop on their way outbound/inbound from deployment to take on or offload munitions. There's really no reason to go through the complexity of transferring all of the munitions from one CVN to another at sea when you could use forklifts and cranes in port. It's easier, far less dangerous, and less time consuming. Imagine how long the CVNs would have to sail close together to transfer that much. No ships captain is going to do that unless they have no choice.

2) US the West coast air wings are based in CA, with Growlers in Washington. There's no reason not to fly the relief carriers normal air wing out to it.