Vital Airfield
 

Vital Airfield - Gotland

Date: July 4, 1989

Battle Location: Bunge-Farosund, Sweden

Battle Type: Soviet Union assault vs Sweden/USMC counterattack

Design by: Suhiir

Scenario description: Fictional Scenario

Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika has not been popular with hard-line Communits Party officials. The erosion of power and prestige has resulted in a coup.

The justification for the coup, and in order to forestall public unrest, is fictitious evidence that non-aligned Finland (not a NATO member) is intending to militarily re-occupy Karelia, with Swedish assistance, and Gorbachev's blessings.

Both Finland and Sweden have partially mobilized but maintain their peace-time deployments. European NATO members have adopted a "Wait and see" stance.

A Marine Amphibious Unit Team (MAU), still aboard ship, has been deployed into the Baltic . Washington feels the Soviets won't want to involve NATO in their internal political squabbles.

Then, to everyones suprise, on July 3rd the Soviets invade Finland and Gotland. The Soviets have been VERY careful not to antogonize the European NATO members, even going so far as to have their units in Europe return to garrison. Needless to say the Europen NATO members are "discussing" the issue but have done nothing.

The US Navy is NOT happy about having an amphibious fleet in the Baltic but on orders from Washington deployed the MAU on Gotland before withdrawing.

Then on July 4th the Soviets invade Gotland and the Marines rush to secure the vital Bunge-Farosund airfield.


Notes:
Designed to be played as Sweden/USMC.
This is a HUGE and LONG battle, as both sides struggle for control of the airfield.

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I'll be curious to see what our resident Swedish expert thinks!

As always, feedback and bug reports are desired.

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Re: Vital Airfield
 

Note this scenario is still in "testing".
I could use some feedback from someone that (unlike me) doesn't know what's showing up where, when, an where it's going.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Only 4 turns in I think some of my stuff its obvious where it will turn up, due to emplacments in place.
I am assuming the Marines will be making an anphib landing, not checked HQ screen to see when or where or whats coming by clicking on. Probably will around turn 10 to 12 if not shown up.

SPOILER
From layout my assumption was attack is expected from top, bottom right quadrant & possibly from left side thoughthat looks least protected.
Survived the initial bombing fairly well but smoke from has hindered fire zones quite badly, confirmed attack from the top but was not expecting the paratroopers to drop in.
They have been causing costly havoc as landed near some of my MANPAD & ATGM units & a MMG, also to close to my HQ for comfort, fortunatly I did my normal set his range to 4 at the start thing so I dont think he has been detected.
Currently mech reinforcments that have arrived have split, 1 platoon heading to take up position in the South the others to the rescue of my HQ.
Due to smoke only other unit that could protect him was a fortified turret that was dispatched with a well aimed RPG.
Tense already need to mop up the paratroopers as a priority & I know some have landed out of LOS so I need to find them.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Yeah, you usually know the general direction a major attack is coming from, in this case the top of the map. The question, of course, is how soon and how much?

I'm glad you're "enjoying" the Soviet Paratroops. While not a paratrooper myself a vital airfield like this seems to be an ideal target. And help, in terms of heavier units, is closing in.

As to the Marines ... nope ... if you read the scenario description they were landed elsewhere on Gotland yesterday so they'll be coming by land. And guessing where shouldn't be too difficult. The question will be ... throw them all into the fight near where they arrive on the map or take some of the faster units cross-country to other areas that could use reinforcement?

Re: Vital Airfield
 

I did wonder with the Marines as I was typing it, so confirms my left flank is probably safe. My guess is by the time they turn up I might well need to split & send some much needed support across the map.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Ever wish you saved the game at the end of your turn so you could roll the die again just to see how differently it pans out, this was one of those turns.

Russian air is doing an amazing job of taking out my air defences.

Top of map my emplaced tank misses the moving target only to be taken out by its initial return fire, 60+% vs 11%. Scouts was the same mines dead killed in 2 shots without inflicting harm.

Battle for the airfield goes badly especially engineer hill side, Paras are living up to there elite status hitting bunkers at 500m with RPGs & making short work of dug in units.

On the flip side the home guard excelled round the school making short work of the paras there but the real surprise was the non combat troops.
Poor guys took a real beating during the bombing at the start losing an entire squad & the rest in route or rally state. They have been shot up a bit by the Paras some of whom landed adjacent.
Enough is enough must have had a hero rally or something the surviving squads are still hanging in there & have taken out everyone except the sniper.

Very bloody turn for both sides not your normal exchange of shots for the odd casualty lots of snake eyes on both sides entire units lost in 2 to 3 exchanges of fire.
I would love to have seen how that played out if I did it again, my dug in front line troops are getting slaughtered while the lesser quality not entrenched troops are having a field day.
Heck I was coming to the rescue of the wrong guys:eek: the battle might well hinge on what I do with my mobile forces I feel a storm coming from the top but the paras are still a big issue. Running my vehicles around at speed could prove very costly with the air still active.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

If the air attacks involved the use of WC 17 weapons, yes you may see an increase in their effectiveness for all nations now.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

The Russian bombardment of the airfield is in three stages.
#1 - A bunch of level bombers, there's enough of them they'll hit something, and if nothing else block fields of fire with dust and smoke.

#2 - SEAD strike, hopefully taking out radar guided/aimed AA weapons.

#3 - A swarm of MiG-27Ds, each with a couple LGB's (WC 17) for their initial strike then rockets and cluster bombs for follow-up strikes.

Oh ... did I mention a battalion of artillery and another of BM-21s?

One might get the feeling the Russians really want that airfield out of commission if not in their hands.

Those non-combat troops are armed with SMGs ... if the paratroops are in range ... yeah .. they should do fairly well. The question is what happens when they're not in SMG range?

Re: Vital Airfield
 

#1 As mentioned bombers did do some minor damage including wiping out a complete squad. Main thing though was smoke helped Paras till turn 4 or 5 by hindering view.

#2 Yes was aware due to probably giving away positions firing at para drop AA assets have also been actively targeted early on. Even the reinforcement MANPADs have been targeted over the vehicles & other units they unloaded from.

#3 Seen many people comment on air not being cost effective, I agree if used on a small scale but its a serious problem in a case like this.
Air & paras give the AI intel so it plays better.

This is a Tense battle choices, choices do I want my arty firing all out. Can I risk vehicles moving at high speed & hence being easily spotted & am I going to the right spot anyway.
This battle rages across a good portion of the map with hotspots flaring up here & there.

Not the best recon but remaining non combat troops are moving to cover avenues of approach for areas I am not expecting an attack from, just in case.

Not going to give updates as will spoil the fun but your deployment gives you a good idea of where they are coming from, not for the light hearted this is proving a very bloody battle.

I my case the surprising ferocity of the early exchanges has calmed down, the game engine has still thrown up some nasty surprises. 2 Para ATGMs fired on while they were moving hero rallied & took out the attacking unit.

If you wanted to nit-pick a couple of my early reinforcements arrived adjacent or in one case in the same hex as the Paras (it was wiped out in the very first exchange of shots).
To me its fine they were not close to the airfield so just a bit slow reacting to the attack, out of the barracks straight into enemy arms.

In my case also the one thing AAA was fairly effective at hitting was the transports so several bailed early rather than at the drop zone.

May just be this run through but the AI has been very effective at selecting priority targets, ATGMs MANPADS etc. apart from a few AA guns I have not managed to take advantage of the extra ammo load outs some support units got.

Like this one fraught rather than fun is how I would describe it. Need to pay attention your choices & indeed a bit of luck or not could make your losses quite varied. Will definitely replay this in the future at some point :up:

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Reading this, Cool stuff! Now there is an itch to play.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

A question: why Soviet infantry have their transport in separate formations?

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Which infantry......which formations ?

Re: Vital Airfield
 

All Soviet line infantry (both mech and naval) companies have their transports in this scenario in separate units. It is probably a bonus for the AI, as it will make easier to pass rally checks.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Mostly it's at attempt to reduce the amount of time the transports spend picking up and dropping off the same infantry unit over-an-over and not actually moving. Additionally it permits the infantry and transports to use different movement paths and have slightly different objectives.

And no ... I didn't use existing formations Don ... I made my own for the scenario.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

The Operation Garbo novels from the 1980s deals with a fictional isolated Soviet attack on Sweden and Finland. In this story most of Gotland is lost in the early fighting but is recaptured by the USMC - as NATO sort of gets involved - in an amphibious operation with the hilarious name "Gotland Grab"... :)

http://img.tradera.net/images/667/24...4b8d5f645b.jpg


Gotland Brigade (PB18) did indeed have Centurion and the old "KP-Bil" type wheeled APCs. I'm a little surprised you knew this.... :up:

There are a few other peculiarities to Bunge/Gotland that are probably hard to know unless one is a Swedish speaker or works in the Russian military intelligence....

Re: Vital Airfield
 

I generally try to research the equipment/manpower in particular units when I reference them directly in a scenario. Of course you rarely get everything 100%, but one must try.

I think I've mentioned that during my military career I was an Intel Analyst for a few years. After all the information you give your CO better be as accurate as you can possibly manage or why even bother to have you around.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Yeah, and I assume there is maybe not that much availiable, and especially not in English...

Anti-Air on Gotland relied on RBS-70 and older 40mm lvakan (Bofors guns) in 1989. Most of these had only day/good weather capability.

There was one RBS 70 Bn - the 37th. And if IIRC about three or four companies with 40mm. The Brigade 18th AA Company had Rb 69 Red Eye SAMs.

The RBS-90 (which I served with in northern Sweden) was more capable, could be used at night and did at this time not trigger the aircraft warning systems – but they first arrived on Gotland in the mid 90s. Because of this shortage in range - on a number of occasions – the high altitude RBS 67/77 (HAWK/IHAWK) was deployed temporarily on Gotland to provide better SAM range.

Bunge was a World War II era air strip. It was too short for modern jets but figured in the planing for use as a (naval) helicopter base. Also, an airmobile assault – maybe using a large number of helicopters - against Gotland in a coup like fashion was a particular concern for the officers of MKG (“Military Command Gotland”), it being the closest territory to the Soviet Union. Counterattacks against airfields, esp. Visby, was a standard type of exercise.

Normally the armoured battalions (Bn:s 1, 2 and 3) of the brigade was deployed independently in order to avoid being tied up needlessly in combat before the counterattack. Ideally it was to attack with two battalions abreast, and one trailing against an enemy bridge head or landing zone. It could draw on heavy artillery support as the brigade wielded as many 10,5cm batteries as it had tank or mech inf companies. Other artillery support was also possible from the local defence (tractor drawn, less mobile than the brigade artillery but with the same calibre), or the Coastal Artillery which had the strongest concentration in the north of Gotland, some with heavier guns. Depending on the situation this supposedly decisive counterattack could also be reinforced with a fourth armoured battalion (each of the three territorial areas – GK, 701. Combat Group, 703. Combat Group – fielded their own armoured battalion in addition to a number of local defence units. The ambition was to win quickly in a very offensive manner. The officers on Gotland were not great believers in a war of attrition with the WP.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

The Swedish Naval Force was made up of two branches, one was the Navy (“The Costal Fleet”) and the other the Coastal Artillery. The Coastal Artillery operated a number of fixed artillery batteries and so called mine stations (a bunker from where propositioned sea mines could be detonated), but also had mobile artillery units (battery strength or Bn size, the so called “Blocking Battalions” of wich there was one on Gotland, the Bn had 7.5cm guns and Rb52 anti-ship missiles), amphibious light infantry units (normally no light inf on Gotland though) and operated smaller naval craft. Bunge was the mobilization location for the mobile 7th Coastal Artillery Battery (15,2cm m/37B guns - not in the OOB). Its intended primary area of operations was however Östergarnslandet further south. Near Bunge on Bungenäs just outside the game map there was the fixed Battery BN (with three turrets of two 15,2cm m/51 guns each, also not in the OOB). The primary mission of the Costal Artillery was to engage enemy ships, esp. landing efforts, but could in a pinch also be used for ground targets. Because the brigade and local defence artillery battalions all had 10,5cm guns it was popular among the army to request support from the heavy CA units when traning.

The Swedish Navy – for much of the 1980s the Navy suffered from lack of funding and some odd command decisions. By 1989 it had seen a lot of use in the anti-submarine field ("We're fighting a war under the water", the commander of the Coastal Fleet claimed) and received some new craft and more powerful anti-ship missiles (RBS 15) that gave it a more credibility as an anti-invasion tool.


The Swedish Air Force – throughout the cold war the air force was given priority. It's attack resources were pooled into E1 (1st Attack Wing), sometimes called the heavy club. It's first mission, for which the pilots trained extensively, was attack against a seaborne invasion. In case of invasion the idea was to press home attacks ruthlessly but not piecemeal. About three strong sorties were expected to be possible against the “invasion cake” before it reached the Swedish coast. The air force was willing to trade heavy losses among planes and air crew for the chance at delivering a crippling blow at sea. Especially Soviet escort craft was to be targeted. Sink enough and the rest would have to turn back or be massacred by the next layers of defence, the navy and close to shore the coastal artillery. Some argue that the Soviets would also have been equally willing to throw men, air craft and ships into the battle, and that their strong AA defences would have cleared the skies. In the Falklands the British had less air defence assets - but it is said that the Argentinians would have stopped the British effort had only all the bombs that hit British ships exploded. And the Argentininas had long distances to the operations areas and were mostly not trained for anti-ship operations...

In numbers the Air Force dwarfed that of the other nordic countries - Finland, Norway, Denmark - it had more planes than the others combined.

While the army depended heavily on mobilisation to flesh out the war time units, the navy (in 1989) and especially the air force did not.

For the army one problem with mobilisation was that there was not enough people on Gotland to fill up the units intended to be used there so bodies had to be drawn from the mainland. If mobilisation was not ordered before the war started getting the people there could be a problem..., it was however not uncommon to field excersises with this problem in mind.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

I'm assuming the Soviets already have a foothold on Gotland, thus some of their heavier forces are available and the Swedish Naval and Air Forces are busy fighting for their lives elsewhere, thus no naval forces for either side in this battle and while the Soviet first strike is fairly impressive in WinSPMBT terms it's a fraction of what it could/should be. As is the USMC air ... the air war over Gotland is hot and heavy,

Previous battles have depleted PB18's artillery and what's left of it's other two armored Bn's are have been combined are are also elsewhere. This map, of course, only covers a fraction of Gotland.

I didn't know the airfield was so marginal for modern aircraft ... that actually changes the entire thing! But I guess we'll just have to live with it.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Unless the Soviet objective is to use it as a helicopter base. Gotland does not have many large size ports - basically it's Visby and Slite - it could maybe be a creative way to overcome the supply problem..., which I assume the bulk of would have to come over the beach otherwise.

Visby airfield was used for military air, but from the Soviet perspective it's on the "wrong" side of the Island with the strongest concentration of Swedish units.

The Swedish defences on the southern part of the island were weaker but there were no larger size ports in this southern area, and in some areas difficult shallow waters.

I made a crude map on the intended initial (intended) deployments according to the operations order for 1980 of GK ("Gotland Coastal Defence" which was one of there teritorial commands under CMKG. It was dominated by the coastal artillery).

There were more units than this, a bunch of supply/depot/administrative etc units. The Furilden Radar Site had it's own dedicated AA and infantry detachments and there were at least five Vkomp (Värnkompani, roughly Fortified Company) manning bunkers and other fixed positions in GK. Mostly older, but local conscrips...

25. Minesweeper and 5. MUL Div (seamine warfare) were navy units, not relevant here.

18th Bde Engineer Coy was for most of it's existance deployed near Slite to destroy the harbour if it seemed like it was going to be lost (most harbours, air fields and bridges in Sweden were prepared for demolition. In many cases the explosives were stored nearby).

https://68.media.tumblr.com/e576c11c...igto1_1280.png

For your scenario one could assume most of these units having been destroyed by previous actions, or failed to mobilise - however one strong reason for having an armoured brigade on Gotland was that the enemy would need tanks of his own and the preparations for shipping them over was considered much easier to detect than say an air assault operation...

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Let's assume the Soviets are grabbing Bunge as a "temporary" resupply base for their attack on Slite which is happening concurrently ... and where most of the PB18 rather busy. The Marines, not being part of the defense plan, are sent to reinforce/counterattack Bunge.

Furilden ... well ... there's a smoking crater where the radar use to be.

Based on your input I've made a few changes to the scenario. Now to wait for a couple folks to finish it and send me their impressions and feedback.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Makes sense to me. For most of the cold war the Soviet amphibious capability was underdimensioned in the Baltic - unless for this scenario one assumes they built more, or shifted resources from the Murmansk or the Black Sea - both actions would have likely triggered responses though - Swedish and Danish intellegience services were very interested in the exact numbers of WP ships in the Baltic, every day - but the Soviets would have needed to use merchant ships and to unload the heavy stuff probably also both harbours and cranes.

From a Swedish perspective defeating an attempt at grabbing the Slite harbour would have been given priority.



Companies in Swedish units are numbered, the 2nd Batallion PB18 would have had companies 7. (arm inf), 8. (arm inf) and 9. (tank). It would not be uncommon to name companies after their commander, esp. if it's an ad hoc formation.

Often in the field the call sign was used, 2. Bn of a brigade during the cold war would be:


2nd Bn = VL (or Viktor Ludvig)
7th Co = QL (or Qvintus Ludvig)
8th Co = RL (or Rudolf Ludvig)
9th Co = SL (or Sigurd Ludvig)

Re: Vital Airfield
 

How are Homeguard formations numbered/lettered?
What Homeguard formations would be in the Bunge area?

Given the distance to Gotland ... hovercraft ... one reason the Soviet assault isn't made of as many heavy formations as one would expect normally ... you may have noticed there are no Soviet tank companies.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Hmm..., IIRC they changed the names some time around when this scenario takes place.

Home Guard units had names that differed from the rest of the organisation - a Hemvärnskrets included a number of Hemvärnsområden....

Norra Gotlands Hemvärnskrets (Hvk)
- Gothem hvo
- Slite hvo
- Hangvar hvo
- Lärbro hvo
- Bunge hvo
- Fårö hvo

But the exchanged the names Hvk to Batallion and Hvo to Company (or if it was small to platoon). I assume it would have been Bunge Hvkomp. IIRC the name change took place during the 80s...

The Swedish Home Guard had it's roots in WWII. It was made up of volunteers too old for the Brigades or the local defence, i.e. around 50 years old. They had their equipment, uniform and weapon in their homes and usually lived close to their wartime assignment. The first priority of the Home Guard was to protect the mobilisation of the defence - Sweden practiced a dispersed mobilisation with vehicles and equipment etc spread out over the countryside in storages, farmers' barns etc. The Home Guard was also to man certain fortifications near air ports, harbours etc, and be able to protect important targets (bridges, goverment agencys etc) against sabotage. Or to destroy those targets if they were in danger of falling into enemy hands. That means the Home Guard was especially important in a coup type of invasion ("strategic attack").

The majority would have been in the field within an hour or two. On Gotland there was one Hv artillery battery which was unusual (I'm unsure of its location, doubt it was Bunge). The Home Guard was mostly a leg infantry organisation that when it came to combat focused on fighting in platoon, sometimes company.

The Home Guard was jokingly nicknamed "the Prostate Geurillas" though it had women in fighting positions early on.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

After the cold war some Soviet military maps over Sweden surfaced and it showed that they knew plenty about important details the Swedish defence thought they would be more or less in the dark about, things like depths in important areas, airfield lengths, conditions in forrests, capacity of bridges, direction of streams, fording possiblities. Harbours were given special attention on these maps. It was estimated that one division would need 10 000 metric tones every day, half of it being fuel.

Gotland might have been less supply demanding given its limited size.

I'm not sure if it is possible to launch from civilian type Ro/Ro craft at sea. Or even if the WP had them in enough numbers, but in theory some elements of a Mot Rifle Rgt should be able to swim ashore on it's own - provided they can get off the ship without it sinking or beaching.

Russian map of northern Gotland. They knew about the fortifications there.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/3dd03787...igto1_1280.png

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Is there a reason the speeds for the Soviet vehicles are reduced?

Re: Vital Airfield
 

You betcha!
To keep them from outrunning their infantry and getting slaughtered as usually happens. Their suppose to support the infantry assault not recreate the Charge of the Light Brigade.

AND !

On a side note I made a terrible blunder, I forgot to change the Soviet APCs to carry capacity 0 ... so most of the infantry and APCs are sitting around at their start locations in the infamous infinite load-unload loop doing absolutely nothing. This means the supposed Soviet assault is more of a trickle.

So ... new version of the scenario.
Which also includes a few tweaks as per wulfir's suggestions and my own playtesting.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Been a quiet week since the last scenario revision ... anyone finding any bugs or anything odd?

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Oops sorry thought I had posted, just out of interest due to Para & the amount of air tried replaying the first 6 turns a few times to see what happens.
Bit of good or bad luck can make a huge difference with Para landings & how effective air is.

SPOILER
Top of map deciding what to do probably makes a big difference to.
ATGM & Tanks are pretty much out on there own, move troops up for eyes, tanks back or what?
AI Attack helos work well not charging in fact one is a real pain in the @##$ SAM equipped Super Cobra sorted him out.
My 155 battery is a very effective CB tool
Deciding what to do with helos becomes very interesting I assume AI gets AAA & Arty as reinforcements which spices things up a bit.
20mm AA guns don't fire much vs air but not really surprising looking at stats there was better stuff in WWII, range finder & FC of 1 does not a good AAA gun make.

From others comments if you buy infantry separate to taxis the middle top group & bottom group infantry could probably do with starting a turn earlier to help the AI.
Just my guess that start taking out vehicles before they have eyes on my firers. Still the helos turn up & by then I think some infantry has LOS.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Yeah, the paras are really a wildcard since you have no clue where they'll land (and as designer best I can do is pick a general drop zone). Could be a nuisance or a major pain in the rear.

I'd suggest hit-n-run with the ATGMs and armor. Try to disrupt them a bit so their assault is a bit less coordinated (not that AI assaults are all that coordinated to start with).

Trouble is ... there are more Ruskie helos then you have air-to-air missiles on your Cobras ... when and where can you rearm?

The transport helos can be VERY useful after they drop their troops ... I'll leave it to you to figure out how :D

To be honest the Swede 20mm AA is there more for their anti para infantry value then their anti-air.

I adjusted the arrival of the Soviet Infantry and APCs/Armor ... still not ideal but ya do what ya can with the tools the scenario editor gives you.

If you've only gotten less then say 15 turns into the game you've still got a few surprises coming ... I hope.

Thanks for the feedback!

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Just read that the USMC will deploy one rifle company to Bunge while the US Army will fly AH64 and CH47 helicopters from the airfield during AURORA 17.

The Russians have their own drill - Zapad 17 - to take place at the same time (September)...:)

Re: Vital Airfield
 

One rifle company?

While it's a more-or-less autonomous combat unit it would totally lack any inherent logistic/maintenance/medical support and of course "little" things like heavy weapons, artillery, and air.

You sure it's not a battalion? Presumably a typical battalion sized MEU? Not like the WW II size airfield is a real issue for Harriers/F-35Bs.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

It's what they said in the news.

1500 Americans to participate, about half naval crew, one USMC company motorised with I assume Humvees and a US Army helicopter unit flying a few attack/transport helicopters temporarily based at Bunge.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

I'm working on (what I hope will be) the final tweak for this scenario.

Any input or questions?

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Scenario goes GOLD !
Final Version

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Congratulations :up: and thank you for this great scenario design Suhiir. I started playing this a few weeks ago in PBEM as the Soviets but gave up the battle in turn 9 or 10 when i noticed that the T-62s, BTR-80s and BMP-2s had their movement value points restricted to 9. I would have gone further on playing and taken the beating of the helos AGTMs, sporadic artillery and reinforcing airborne units and mech units rushing to fight for the airfield and surroundings had those vehicles movement points not been altered from their original value. Nevertheless i must again admit that the scenario design is top notch.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Well, since it's intended as primarily as a single player scenario I had to alter the speed of the armor to keep it from outrunning the infantry when controlled by the AI.

If you want to play it as a PBEM feel free to use the editor to change the movement speeds back to what they'd normally be. It's pretty easy as you can just change one of each vehicle type an "copy" the change to every vehicle in the scenario.

But thank you, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Its great fun will play the final version when it comes out in the patch, already played it a few times. Even though I know about the nasty surprises waiting its great as the paradrop & fairly heavy use of air means its never the same twice.
Not a lover of playing as defender normally but this is a reactive defence & where you decide to send your units makes a huge diffrence.
Could do a couple of varients leaving human side as is but without giving much away changing attackers entry times or adding more forces to some attacks, second para drop another 5 turns in could throw a spanner in the whole thing for example.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Yeah, not a real fan of sitting around getting pounded on myself, why I made it reactive.

I'm glad you found the surprises interesting, always fun trying trying to figure out how to keep a human player on their toes.

I'd considered a second wave of paratroopers, but ran into the 500 unit limit. Maybe I'll take a look and see if I can arrange a second wave.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

I took a look, I can manage a larger paradrop (had to cut one BMP company) and add a little something "extra".

Problem is I now have to redo ALL the waypoint plots ... so not gonna happen anytime soon. Sometime before the 2018 patch.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

I seem to have run into a problem.

While tweaking this scenario I deleted a few Soviet units and purchased some different ones. Some of the units I purchased are paratroop transports (units 498-500 of the Soviet force composition).

No matter what I do I cannot get those newly purchased paratroop transports to airdrop the paras loaded in them on turn 5 of the scenario.

Help!

Re: Vital Airfield
 

For me the airdrop is the highest point of the scenario, as well as the excellent map design, really inspiring and encouraging for us who like the scenario design aspect of these great games.:up:

Re: Vital Airfield
 

I take zero credit for the map.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

No one has an idea, other then delete the entire scenario and start over?

Re: Vital Airfield
 

I assume you didn't make a save BEFORE deleting those units? If no I guess you just learned something.

Also. it's kinda hard for anyone to SEE what you might have done without actually SEEING IT

Re: Vital Airfield
 

If this problematic para drop is not in the 6/29 release, you could revert to that scenario dated 6-29-17, rather than starting from scratch.

Just thinking, why is the 7-4 release smaller than the two earlier releases?

<br>

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Actually I do ... just download the "Gold" version of the scenario and compare it to this.

Re: Vital Airfield
 

hopefully one of the experienced scenario designers can help you with this

Re: Vital Airfield
 

Hi

For work reasons I have a limited amount of time to play spmbt lately, but I´m grateful to have such carefully designed long scenarios like these which are almost like a mini - campaign.
I have some questions, but on little details like; Why the Swedish 20mm flak have restricted arcs of fire?

Thank you Suhir

Re: Vital Airfield
 

No clue.
Unless you're speaking of the ones mounted on the bunkers near the coast? If so ... bunkers are considered "vehicles" in WinSPMBT thus CURRENTLY (this changes with the next patch) any weapon in weapon slot #4 is considered a Bow Machinegun thus has only a forward firing arc.

You're entirely welcome.