SCENARIOS!

[wulfir]

Scenario slot 244!

November 12, 1948...

The 200th Division is coming...

Trained by the Americans, enough tanks to be called an armouerd division..., led by Chiang Kai-Shek's son...
...attacking west to break the Communist encirlement of the KMT 7th Army.

A blocking force, communist troops of Wei Guoqing's column, are waiting..., no tanks, no aircraft, no heavy artillery...

[wulfir]

Scen 245!

December 19, 1948.
North of Polso, Java Island.

Operatie Kraai has been launched..., Dutch Marines have landed near Toeban and are advancing south. Near Polso the TNI rebles make a stand.

Let the gloves come off...

[RazGator]

Good subject. Lots of conflicts in this area of the world after WWII that are all but forgotten about. Working on a 1965 British counter-insurgency operation in Borneo scenario but it was such a low intensity conflict that it's hard to make an interesting game of it.

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by RazGator

...but it was such a low intensity conflict that it's hard to make an interesting game of it.

Agreed. Especially low-intensity stuff is difficult to do somehting creative with...

[burroughs]

Hello guys.
I dare to disagree on the subject of low intensity conflicts and counterinsurgency warfare. I am participating in "The Battle for the South Atlantic" tournament at the Blitz site that covers the Falklands War; obviously all of the scenarios are based on small units actions, company up to a battalion sized elements mostly. Just like during the Malaysian emergency first and then during the Borneo operations. A couple of weeks ago I set up a regular patrol of a pratroop platoon augmented with SAS teams already present in the AO agains a Kopassus company scattered in the jungle after a paradrop. Worked quite well in my humble opinion, but I could not develop that much furter due to the lack of knowledge in scenario making. I think there is a potential to make the Borneo campaign settings interesting enough by skillful combination of some historic background and ingame mechanics - air assaults, reinforcing the far flung firebases and outposts under fire, conducting patrols and setting up hasty ambushes based on some last minute intel or seaborne and airborne infiltration and incursions off the Indonesian border from both sides. Certainly the map size needs to be adjusted accordingly. I am not a map maker myself and I indeed did not manage to find any interesting and of a decent size ones in my mostly stock set.
Good luck to Your project. I will be following the news on that, hoping to see it ready here any time soon.

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by burroughs

I am participating in "The Battle for the South Atlantic" tournament at the Blitz site that covers the Falklands War; obviously all of the scenarios are based on small units actions...

IMHO the problem is not so much the fact that it's a small unit action - I think most players like the small size "lunch-hour" size scenario...

...but how can you transfer a geurilla set-up to winSPMBT?
How many players would like to patrol an 80x100 jungle map looking for two insurgent scout teams hidden away - that might or might not be located during the 30 turns of the game...

Granted PBEM games with quality players like those at the Blitz will always be better than facing the AI and human vs human play also offers a lot more possibileties with regards to objectives that need to be achieved for winning etc.

Btw, Burroughs - don't fear the editor, get cracking on those maps.

[RazGator]

I said that it was hard to make good scenarios with low intensity conflicts; it's not impossible though. I did a Falklands scenario included in the latest patch covering Operation Corporate. It required some manipulation of victory hexes to get the AI to make a fight of it, but it can be done. It's a matter of having some unusual angle to make it interesting. This "angle" can be any of a number of factors. Unusual objectives, special rules, equipment, units, terrain and maps can all be used to enhance small scenarios.

Research for low intensity conflicts can be a bear as well. Such conflicts rarely have much tactically detailed material available from which to design an interesting scenario.(Try and find much tactical info on the French-Algerian War '54-'62)

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by RazGator

I said that it was hard to make good scenarios with low intensity conflicts; it's not impossible though. I did a Falklands scenario included in the latest patch covering Operation Corporate. It required some manipulation of victory hexes to get the AI to make a fight of it, but it can be done. It's a matter of having some unusual angle to make it interesting. This "angle" can be any of a number of factors. Unusual objectives, special rules, equipment, units, terrain and maps can all be used to enhance small scenarios.

Research for low intensity conflicts can be a bear as well. Such conflicts rarely have much tactically detailed material available from which to design an interesting scenario.(Try and find much tactical info on the French-Algerian War '54-'62)

A useful site for scenario research:
http://www.britains-smallwars.com/

e.g. this one for an example of a hostage rescue op (has sketch map):
http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Borneo/Limbang-op.htm

Cheers
Andy

[wulfir]

1980,
Afghanistan...

Soviet VDV troops of the 345th Regiment enter Mamhud-i-Raqi behind the regular Afghani soldiers - supposedly their comrades-in-arms but in reality considered worthless by the VDV...

...inside the town the Mujahedin waits behind prepared positions, burning with hate for the Soviets...

(Semi-fictional scenario based on Zimgas Stankus' Kaip tamparma Albinosais.)

[Palle]

Originally Posted by RazGator

I said that it was hard to make good scenarios with low intensity conflicts; it's not impossible though. I did a Falklands scenario included in the latest patch covering Operation Corporate. It required some manipulation of victory hexes to get the AI to make a fight of it, but it can be done. It's a matter of having some unusual angle to make it interesting. This "angle" can be any of a number of factors. Unusual objectives, special rules, equipment, units, terrain and maps can all be used to enhance small scenarios.

Research for low intensity conflicts can be a bear as well. Such conflicts rarely have much tactically detailed material available from which to design an interesting scenario.(Try and find much tactical info on the French-Algerian War '54-'62)

That conflict has been described and analysed in many a book as there were some ... interesting aspects of it... Rather I would say it is hard to make the AI model COIN or rebellions.