Scenario: Vital Airfield

[Suhiir]

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.

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

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.

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)

[Suhiir]

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.

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

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

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.

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

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.

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.

[RetLT]

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

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by RetLT

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

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.

[Suhiir]

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

[Imp]

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.

[Suhiir]

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

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!