New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (Full Version)

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Randomizer -> New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (6/28/2016 7:55:57 PM)

SAC vs. the Soviet Union - 1957

You are Commander, 308th Bombardment Wing, Strategic Air Command equipped with B-47E medium bombers and normally based at Hunter Air Force Base (AFB), outside Savannah, GA. You are also the current OP REFLEX Commander on temporary duty at Sidi Slimane AFB in French Morocco and in the event of war will be responsible to conduct nuclear strikes against the Soviet Union out of the SAC forward bases: Sidi Slimane with elements of your combat wing, Ben Guerir AFB (19th Bombardment Wing with B-47's) and Nouasseur AFB (72nd Bombardment Wing with B-36's). You have the REFLEX elements of these combat wings in addition to your own forces and the stateside Wing Commanders will allocate their bombers to your command from bases in the USA as they become ready.

Hostilities with the Soviet Union have not commenced but if they do, your mission will be to attack Soviet industrial targets starting in southern Russia on the Black Sea coast. You have over flight rights from Italy, Greece and Turkey but Western European airspace belongs to the SAC REFLEX forces in the UK and Spain, the RAF, NATO and Tactical Air Command. Other SAC Wings will operate from south Asia east from the Caucasus mountains. You have no fighter escorts (in SAC, the bomber will always get through) and the NATO allies have no significant assets or support to give you outside of the bases at Lajes AFB in the Azores, Gioia del Colle AFB in Italy and RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus for refueling. Assigned to your command are the 3rd Reconnaissance Squadron (12 x RB-47) of the 26th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing and a detachment of EC-121 Warning Stars from the 961st Airborne Electronic Warning and Control Squadron for airborne command and control. There are quantities of nuclear weapons stockpiled at your Moroccan bases and more will be flown in as necessary by MATS.

Big Player Caveat:

The AU count for this scenario is in excess of 2400 so those who might experience CMANO performance issues are warned away. That said, my 3-year old laptop ran it in testing at acceptable (for me) time acceleration. Over one-third of the AU count is from 48-Soviet cities that contain between 1 and 12 facilities and markers. Another third is in the 40-Soviet airfields averaging 14-16 facilities each. All of these are fully targetable for your nuclear weapons. The odd title and some background on forward basing by SAC - OPERATION REFLEX ACTION - are explained in the Players Notes and the scenario is written in CMANO v1.11, build 837.

Thanks for any tests, I am particularly interested in calibrating the victory conditions and the PVO's air defence scheme.

-C

Scenario Version 1.1 posted. Changelog below.



TurboRUSH -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (6/30/2016 3:40:54 AM)

I love your early cold war scenarios. I'll give this one a try on my Intel atom notebook this week. It runs some large scenarios ok so I'll test for both scenario design, bugs and performance. Keep these scenarios coming!



stolypin -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (7/1/2016 1:56:37 PM)

Looks right up my alley. Next on the list.



stolypin -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (7/4/2016 12:00:38 AM)

Care to provide any hints on the best way to get late-1950s bombers without escort past swarms of enemy fighters?



Randomizer -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (7/4/2016 12:19:45 AM)

Thanks for the test. I have no reliable answer for this problem, (and doubt that SAC did either) which is why I wrote the scenario. That said, night should be your friend since few of the Soviet fighters are all-weather and are required to close within close visual range to use their guns. Another option might be to use your RB-47's to spook the interceptions and then go in after they run short on fuel and need to return to base. Taking out the Soviet radars will help to blind the defenses, the numerous Mk-5 bombs are great for that. Try a low and fast approach, pop-up and drop the bomb on the radar station and then execute a high-speed escape. Refuel over Turkey and repeat as necessary. You have four days but even with six-hour ready times, getting repeat attacks are probably limited to one per day (or night) if you go home. Set WRA for all the bombs to single drops (I actually think that this is default) so one B-47 can attack up to four radar sites if it can survive.

Am open to suggestions for reducing the threat but the scenario was never intended to be the cakewalk that SAC leadership seemed to think it would be. Bad weather might help, this first version lacks the planned deterioration of weather conditions since I was not sure how difficult the Community would find the tactical problem as set.

-C



stolypin -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (7/4/2016 2:00:07 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Randomizer

Thanks for the test. I have no reliable answer for this problem, (and doubt that SAC did either) which is why I wrote the scenario. That said, night should be your friend since few of the Soviet fighters are all-weather and are required to close within close visual range to use their guns. Another option might be to use your RB-47's to spook the interceptions and then go in after they run short on fuel and need to return to base. Taking out the Soviet radars will help to blind the defenses, the numerous Mk-5 bombs are great for that. Try a low and fast approach, pop-up and drop the bomb on the radar station and then execute a high-speed escape. Refuel over Turkey and repeat as necessary. You have four days but even with six-hour ready times, getting repeat attacks are probably limited to one per day (or night) if you go home. Set WRA for all the bombs to single drops (I actually think that this is default) so one B-47 can attack up to four radar sites if it can survive.

Am open to suggestions for reducing the threat but the scenario was never intended to be the cakewalk that SAC leadership seemed to think it would be. Bad weather might help, this first version lacks the planned deterioration of weather conditions since I was not sure how difficult the Community would find the tactical problem as set.

-C


Thanks for the tips. I'm still in Day 1 so it's way too early to suggest modifications. I'll report back as I get further along.



Randomizer -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (7/5/2016 11:12:27 PM)

Any input for this?

Have added weather events, some flavour messages and set the Soviet coastal radar stations to Auto-detect on the assumption that between Turkish and US SIGINT resources there might be a pretty good handle on their locations. Hoping for some constructive feedback before uploading to the Community Scenario thread. Thanks in advance.

-C



stolypin -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (7/9/2016 3:11:49 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Randomizer

Any input for this?

Have added weather events, some flavour messages and set the Soviet coastal radar stations to Auto-detect on the assumption that between Turkish and US SIGINT resources there might be a pretty good handle on their locations. Hoping for some constructive feedback before uploading to the Community Scenario thread. Thanks in advance.

-C


Can you post the updated version? I've been playing the scenario for the past week but have yet to find a winning strategy. I've managed to nuke a few targets but my bombers always suffer horrendous losses. I like the idea of making the radar stations auto detected.



Randomizer -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (7/9/2016 6:25:18 AM)

Forum keeps timing out so cannot post the change log. See Post #4 above for the short version of V1.1 uploaded above.

-C



stolypin -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (7/10/2016 3:29:19 PM)

I'm into the second night of the updated version and I'm having much more success.

Adding the weather event certainly helps but, for me, it's been more about learning to use 1950s-era nuclear-armed bombers properly. It took me a few plays to realize that I couldn't use them like a modern-day squadron armed with MK82s.

Excellent work.



Randomizer -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (7/10/2016 6:17:57 PM)

Thanks for the tests and the feedback. SAC's way of war takes some getting used to and it's not intended to be easy.

Hopefully the Forum won't time out so I can complete the change log.

- Weather changes introduced accompanied by messages from the Wing MET Officer.

- One regiment of Soviet fighters have been deleted from the Crimea. The base remains. This should affect the virtually impenetrable wall of fighters that sometimes formed over the peninsula.

- The first tier of Soviet radar sites are now auto-detected.

- Additional flavour events have been added.

Hints:

- Take out the ships of the Black Sea Fleet first. These provide early warning, which triggers some interception missions.

- Consider the Soviet radars, and air bases as priority targets initially. The cities are not going anywhere and can be left until the defenses have been dealt with. This was (as I understand it) the essence of the onion concept of peeling back the defensive layers one at a time. The smaller Mk-5 boosted fission weapon should be effective on both types of targets, saving the big bombs like the Mk-36 for the urban centers.

- Night and clouds are your friend.

- Consider eventually staging all the KC-97 force at RAF Akrotiri.

- Don't forget BDA as some of the big cities may require multiple attacks.

-C



juanchopancho -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (8/18/2016 10:50:38 PM)

Really enjoyed this one. Pretty scary the amount of megatonnage SAC was able to dish out.

Would be interesting to see similar types of SAC scenarios in the 60/70/80 time frame. See how tactics evolved with SRAMS, ALCMs, etc.




Randomizer -> RE: New Scenario for Testing - Peeling the Onion, 1957 (8/19/2016 1:08:38 AM)

Thank you for the feedback.

In case you missed my 1962 SAC-attack try Wargasm, 1962 from the Community Scenario pack. If interested, use the link below as the updated version did not make it into the last iteration of the community scenarios. You get 45 x B-52s, 36 x KC-135s and a squadron of Atlas-E missiles plus some other toys.

Community Scenarios Post #299

Am tinkering with a 1973 SAC scenario using a B-58 wing and another where the Player attacks the Soviets with RAF V-Bombers from Bomber Command but these scenarios are much more difficult to make historically reasonable and accurate for any number of reasons.

-C



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