Operation Eagle Guardian, 2019 [Redux]
Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2025 7:50 pm
This is my first attempt to play with the editor, so please give me some rope. I have chosen to do so on an old scenario, which nevertheless, having tried it recently, is simply epic, amazing and super immersive. So my task was easy as I am stepping on the shoulders of a giant.
As a reminder this scenario was ordinally inspired by a wargame hosted by RAND Corporation back in 2016 that demonstrated that Russia was in a position to overrun the Baltics within 3 days tops.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1253.html
What I basically did was to revamp the scoring system so that a zero score for NATO represent a minor victory (preservation of status quo) and all points of the various events are now added or subtracted from NATO. The original game awarded shadow points to Russia.
I also optimised the positions of Russia's Air Defences and their WRA because originally there were obvious blind stops and they "self-saturated" quickly by responding to vampire attacks against Russian ships at considerable distance from the AD batteries. The point of the rebalancing is that now the challenge is for NATO to neutralise Russian air defences before gaining air superiority and pounce upon advancing Russian ground units.
Summary of changes is as follows:
1. Terrain Effects are ON to account for forest areas in the Baltics
2. Realistic Submarine Comms are ON because that is the only way it is supposed to be!
3. ASCM Terrain Restrictions are ON to allow the player to take advantage of the crooked Baltic coastline and islets
4. Scoring system has been revisited so that all events add or subtract points for and from NATO (as opposed to shadow points given to Russia)
5. Scoring balance has been adjusted so that 0 is minor victory (NATO preserves status quo)
6. S-400 and S-300 batteries have a customised WRA to prevent them from depleting quickly by firing to distant non-threatening vampires. The focus is now to deny airspace to NATO air assets
7. S-400 and S-300 batteries and a few other Russian Air Defense are now optimally positioned so that there are not any easily exploitable blind spots
Note1: Event "NATO Nuclear Strike Destroys Moscow" has been kept active as per original design. Please note however that at the time of doing this Redux there was a bug that allowed cluster bombs to obliterate City Markers (despite the latter's 50,000 damage points).
Note2: I felt that the intel in NATO briefing lacked depth as to what kind of air assets one is to expect in each of the Russian air bases. I have not changed this however
I will not post this to the community thread for the next month or so, to allow for testing. I promise, if you like big scenarios this is a treat. I you decide to take upon the task, I recommend to play at least for the first two days or so to get a real feeling of how the ground war develops and the challenges NATO faces.
Enjoy (or shout!)
PS. I tried to contact the original author on X.com without success
As a reminder this scenario was ordinally inspired by a wargame hosted by RAND Corporation back in 2016 that demonstrated that Russia was in a position to overrun the Baltics within 3 days tops.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1253.html
What I basically did was to revamp the scoring system so that a zero score for NATO represent a minor victory (preservation of status quo) and all points of the various events are now added or subtracted from NATO. The original game awarded shadow points to Russia.
I also optimised the positions of Russia's Air Defences and their WRA because originally there were obvious blind stops and they "self-saturated" quickly by responding to vampire attacks against Russian ships at considerable distance from the AD batteries. The point of the rebalancing is that now the challenge is for NATO to neutralise Russian air defences before gaining air superiority and pounce upon advancing Russian ground units.
Summary of changes is as follows:
1. Terrain Effects are ON to account for forest areas in the Baltics
2. Realistic Submarine Comms are ON because that is the only way it is supposed to be!
3. ASCM Terrain Restrictions are ON to allow the player to take advantage of the crooked Baltic coastline and islets
4. Scoring system has been revisited so that all events add or subtract points for and from NATO (as opposed to shadow points given to Russia)
5. Scoring balance has been adjusted so that 0 is minor victory (NATO preserves status quo)
6. S-400 and S-300 batteries have a customised WRA to prevent them from depleting quickly by firing to distant non-threatening vampires. The focus is now to deny airspace to NATO air assets
7. S-400 and S-300 batteries and a few other Russian Air Defense are now optimally positioned so that there are not any easily exploitable blind spots
Note1: Event "NATO Nuclear Strike Destroys Moscow" has been kept active as per original design. Please note however that at the time of doing this Redux there was a bug that allowed cluster bombs to obliterate City Markers (despite the latter's 50,000 damage points).
Note2: I felt that the intel in NATO briefing lacked depth as to what kind of air assets one is to expect in each of the Russian air bases. I have not changed this however
I will not post this to the community thread for the next month or so, to allow for testing. I promise, if you like big scenarios this is a treat. I you decide to take upon the task, I recommend to play at least for the first two days or so to get a real feeling of how the ground war develops and the challenges NATO faces.
Enjoy (or shout!)
PS. I tried to contact the original author on X.com without success