Red Storm - Krupp Steel

v2

Death along the Oder River- January / February 1945

• For all players -- all players need to read this:
  • Introduction
  • Dates and Times
  • Summary of Rules
  • Map
• For command staff (and any others interested):
  • Historical Context
  • Victory Conditions
  • Order of Battle
  • Detailed Rules
  • Settings
  • Reasons for Various Aspects of Rules
  • Aspects Particularly Different from Main Arena
  • Scoring and Logs
• For CM's:
• This is for CM convenience. No one else need read this section or pay attention to it.

For All Players -- all players need to read the following:

Introduction

January 12, 1945. The Soviet Union launches a massive assault toward Germany, along a battle front stretching for hundreds of miles. Their forces include 2.2 million men, 33,500 guns, 7,000 tanks and assault guns, and 5,000 aircraft. The goal is to obliterate German defenses in Poland and smash forward to Berlin. The Red Storm is raging.

In response, Germany pulls nearly all of its air-defense forces from elsewhere to focus here at this battle and deploys elite Panzer divisions. The line of defense is drawn east of the Oder river. Krupp Steel is gathered in strength.

There will be air-to-air combat as the Luftwaffe and the VVS vie for control of the air. There are strategic targets to bomb, in order to obliterate the enemy’s infrastructure and supply lines. There are deadly tank battles to be fought. There are ground bases to fight over. It will be a gritty, desperate fight in the cold, the mud, and the cloud-streaked skies -- time to do or die.

Germany will have the Bf 109K-4, FW 190D-9, Bf 109G-14, Bf 109G-6, FW 190A-8, FW 190F-8, Bf 110G-2, Ju 88A-4, Tiger I, Panzer IV H, Ostwind, Wirblewind, SdKfz 251, and ground guns. The Soviet Union will have the La-7, Yak-9U, La-5FN, P-39Q, A-20G, Il-2, B-25C, T-34/85, Sherman, Ostwind, Wirblewind, M3, and ground guns.

Dates and Times

Show-Up Time for this scenario is 3 pm Eastern Time (3 pm New York, USA time) in the Special Events II arena. Note that the USA ends Daylight Saving Time on November 1, and other countries end it on various other dates. To make sure you don't show up an hour late, please use this time converter with the correct date of the frame. Frame dates are as follows.

• October 24: test frame
• October 31: frame 1
• November 7: frame 2
• November 14: frame 3
• November 21: frame 4

The arena is locked to admittance at Show-Up Time, so please show up no later than Show-Up Time. (Takeoffs start 30 minutes after Show-Up Time, the time in between being used for briefings and to get organized.) If you get disconnected and need back into the locked arena, please type into any text radio buffer: ".p roscoroo let me in". Then keep trying to get in (even if the game shows Special Events II as being locked -- try entering still, as the status does not always update quickly). Once you are in, type ".p roscoroo i'm in".

Frames will run for 3 hours after takeoff, then a disengagement will be called, and planes will have 30 minutes to land.

Summary of Rules

• Pilots:
  • Pilots get two lives.
  • A pilot uses up a life if he dies, bails, ditches, does not get a "landed successfully" message, or if he exits (end sortie) at anything other than his takeoff base.
  • Deaths as a gunner do not subtract from your available lives.
  • You can refuel at any base.
  • Do not attack tanks or troop carriers (M3, SdKfz) unless you are specifically ordered to do so. Only particular planes are allowed to attack those vehicles. However, everyone can attack Wirblewinds, Ostwinds, and ground guns (i.e., anti-aircraft vehicles or guns).
  • B-25C's must use glass-nose option.
  • Il-2's may not take 37 mm cannon.
• GV drivers:
• Drivers get four lives.
• A driver uses up a life if he dies, bails, ditches, does not get a "landed successfully" message, or if he exits (end sortie) at anything other than an Active Base.
• Deaths from air attack do not subtract from your available lives.
• Deaths as a gunner, in an M3, or in a SdKfz 251 do not subtract from your available lives.
• Drivers may not resupply bases.
• Everyone:
  • If you have poor frame rates on this terrain, try turning off local water reflections. (Go into "Options->Graphic detail", click "Advanced" button, uncheck "local water reflections".)
  • Your Group Leader will tell you which are the Active Bases for the frame -- please write that information down.
  • The arena will enforce a 5-minute wait after death before anyone can relaunch (will show a dialog box that says "your max deaths have been exceeded" each time you try to launch until 5 minutes has passed).
• When you have no more lives, please volunteer to be a gunner.
• If you get disconnected (dumped), ask the CM if you can launch again. If he says "yes," you can do so without the disco subtracing one of your lives.
• Your CO can eject you from the arena if you are not following orders, breaking rules, being insubordinate, or being a nuissance to your side.
• Players who are CM's but not running the scenario should not use any of their CM abilities (such as god's-eye mode or looking at logs).
• Do not fly off the boundary of the map unless you are chasing an enemy off the map.

Map

For Command Staff (and any others interested):

The German counter-offensive in the Ardennes in December 1944 diverted them from the gathering storm in the east.  In spite of attempts by some of the higher command, Hitler refused to believe that the Russians were capable of launching another massive offensive.  German intelligence predicted a large offensive in the middle of January 1945.  The offensive was expected to be a drive by the Russians to break German will and ability to carry on the war.  The attack was to take the straightest route to Berlin.  This was through Warsaw and the 1st Byelorussian Front under Marshal Zukov, and the1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal Koniev were to lead the assault.  Their two fronts alone comprised 2.2 million men, 33,500 guns, 7,000 tanks and assault guns, and 5,000 aircraft.

Their mission was the destruction of Army Group A under Field Marshal Harpe.and the conquest of Poland. Harpe’s Army Group comprised 400,000 men, 1136 tanks and assault guns with 270 aircraft. Their aircraft stretched from the Vistula north of Warsaw to the Carpathian Mountains.  To the north of Army Group A was Army Group Center command by Field Marshal Reinhardt with 380,000 men, 700 tanks and assault guns and 515 aircraft.

The attack began on January 12.  The odds were distinctly against the Germans and the initial attacks punched holes in their lines all over the front.  The Russians broke through along 300 miles of front to a depth of 60 to 100 miles, shattering Army Group A.  The first phase ended on January 17, 1945 with the fall of Warsaw.

The weather initially was bad with low clouds, fog and poor visibility grounding aircraft on both sides.  When this changed the massive number of VVS aircraft launched horrific attacks on the retreating German armies.  Faced with the effects of this and the continuing offensive the German high command had no choice but to commit virtually all of the Home Defence Jagdgeschewader which had been operating against the American 8th Air Force to the battle in the east.  Several Geschwader of the Luftwaffe day fighter force were transferred to the Eastern Front.  These included JG 1, JG 3, JG 4, JG 6, JG 11 and JG 77.  This was to more than double the available aircraft from 800 to 1,800.  These reinforcements included 1,500 Bf 109s and Fw-190s many of which were the newer models that had seen little use on the eastern front.  These reinforcements are to set the stage for some of the largest air battles of the Eastern Front.

Meanwhile the Russian offensive continues and the red wave is approaching the Oder River, the eastern border of Germany.  The Germans are desperate to stabilize the front and stop the onrushing armies which have advanced hundreds of miles in two weeks.  The only thing which stands between the Red Storm and the homes of German forces was Krupp Steel.

The Russian offensive rolls on westward approaching the Oder River.  The Germans are on the defensive and attempting to reconstruct their lines.  This is a offensive/defensive battle involving ground attack supported by tactical aviation which is striking deep behind German lines at infrastructure and bases.  The Germans are known for their brutal counterattacks and there will be opportunities for the German defender to counterattack on the ground at points of the Russian offensive as the battle ebbs and flows.  Two or more ground battles will occur at any one time.  These both may be defensive for one side or a combination of defense and offense.

Tactical air attacks will occur on airfields, ground battles, factories and cities along the front.

Axis Objectives: Stop the enemy's western advance to the borders of Germany. Destroy enemy strategic infrastructure and air bases to disrupt their offensive. Protect your infrastructure and air bases.

Allied Objectives: Advance westward capturing territory. Destroy enemy strategic infrastructure and air bases to disrupt their defense. Protect your infrastructure and air bases.

Victory is judged in two parts: tactical and strategic victory. It is possible for a side to win a tactical victory but lose strategically or vice versa.

• Each side must seriously pursue all of its objectives -- i.e., sides must work to bomb at least one (preferably more than one) strategic target.
• Tactical points:
• 1 point per enemy aircraft or vehicle lost.
• 1 point per each object destroyed.
• Strategic points:
• 50 points for capturing and holding an objective base at the end of the frame
• 50 points for defending and not allowing an objective base to be held by the enemy at the end of the frame.

Losses = deaths + bailed + captured + crashed + ditched + disco'd. Also, your plane is lost if you do not get "landed successfully" back at your takeoff base, and your vehicle is lost if you do not get "landed successfully" back at any Active Base.

Valid objects to destroy are:

• Anything at a Strategic Target for that frame.
• Anything on the field of an enemy Active Base (i.e., not the town) for that frame.
• Anything on the field or in the town (if there is one) of a side's Objective Base (i.e., an enemy base that you are to capture that frame).

Final tactical victory points = (total allied tactical points) - (total axis tactical points).

Final strategic victory points = (total allied strategic points) - (total axis strategic points) + 150.

Order of Battle

The Russians can register up to 134 players. The Germans can register up to 127 players. However, groups can be filled up to their maximums as listed below, which means that some groups can be under strength or even not used, while others can be full, depending on the CO's discretion.

* B-25C must be glass-nosed model.
* Il-2 may not use 37 mm cannon.
* Only one Il-2 regiment per frame is given permission to attack ground vehicles.

* Only one FW 190F-8 gruppen per frame is given permission to attack ground vehicles.

Basing

Before the start of each frame, each side's CO must assign his air groups' takeoff bases from among the available Active Air Bases. A maximum of three groups may be assigned to any given base. Those assignments stay in effect for the duration of the frame. Each air group may launch and exit (end sortie) only at its takeoff base. Air groups may rearm at any base at all.

Ground groups may use any Active Ground Base at any time.

Phases

The battle is broken up in to three phases, each representing a different advance of the Soviet battle line. Phase One is Frame 1. Phase Two is frame 2. Phase Three is frames 3 and 4.

The terrain and workings of Aces High are such that we cannot always change ownership of cities and factories (i.e., AAA factories, ammo factories, refineries or fuel factories, radar factories, and troop factories or troop-training facilities). However, when you have a city or factory as a strategic target and when that same strategic target is shown on the clipboard map as being owned by your own country, you can still bomb it normally. At any such cities or factories with incorrect country ownership, ack will be disabled. At cities and factories with correct country ownership, ack is enabled.

In any case where there is a conflict between what is listed in the text descriptions for a phase vs. what the map shows, the text descriptions are correct and take precedence over the map below.

Phase One (Frame 1)

Opening of the offensive with two ground battles.  The Soviets are attempting to take A42 and V36 (the Soviet Objective Bases).

Soviet Active Air Bases: A10, A12, A16, A20, A49, A46 and A53.

Soviet Active Ground Bases: A20, V19 and V47

Soviet Strategic Targets:

• AAA Factory 9,14,2
• Refinery 11,12,2
• Troop Factory 7,8,6
• Troop 11,8,1
• City 10,6,6

German Active Ground Bases: A42, V36, V56 and V30

German Strategic Targets:

• City 12,9,4
• City 13,14,6
• City 14,7,8

Phase One Map

Phase Two (Frame 2)

One defensive and one offensive ground battle for both sides. The Soviets are attempting to take A7 (the Soviet Objective Base).  The Germans are able to counter attack at A42 (the German Objective Base).

Soviet Active Air Bases:  A12, A13, A16, A20, A46, A53 and A54.

Soviet Active Ground Bases: V19, A42, V43, V38 and V47

Soviet Strategic Targets:

• Ammo Factory 6,13,9
• AAA Factory 7,13,5
• Troop Factory 7,8,6
• City 7,9,9

German Active Air Bases:  A76, A63, A68, A31, A51, A40, and A64

German Active Ground Bases:  A7, v57, V30, and V56

German Strategic Targets:

• City 12,9,4
• City 12,12,1
• AAA Factory 13.7.7
• Troop Factory 13,11,7

Phase Two Map

Phase Three (Frames 3 and 4)

Battle on the eastern bank of the Oder River. The Soviets are attempting to take A34, V23 and A68 (the Soviet Objective Bases). The Germans are defending but can counter attack at A31 (the German Objective Base).

Soviet Active Air Bases:  A25, A28, A14, A42, A22, A37, A40 and A7.

Soviet Active Ground Bases: V30, A58, V56, A31 and A27.

Soviet Strategic Targets:

• AAA Factory 5,13,3
• Troop Factory 7,14,4
• City 7,9,9
• Troop Factory 7,8,5
• Refinery 6,7,8

German Active Air Bases:  A71, A75, A63, A9, A64, A51 and A17

German Active Ground Bases:  V61, A34, A33, A68, A59, V67, A63 and V23.

German Strategic Targets:

• City 12,9,4
• Refinery 12,9,2
• Troop Factory 11,8,1
• Refinery 11,12,2
• City 12,12,4

Phase Three Map

Other

A pilot gets two lives in his aircraft. A pilot uses up a life if he dies, bails, ditches, does not get a "landed successfully" message, or if he exits (end sortie) at anything other than his takeoff base. Planes can refuel at any base at all.

A driver gets four lives in his vehicle. A driver uses up a life if he dies, bails, ditches, does not get a "landed successfully" message, or if he exits (end sortie) at anything other than an Active Base. The exception to this is that deaths from air attack do not subtract from your available lives as a driver. A death from an air attack will still cause the 5-minute spawn delay, and then you'll have to make your way back to the battle -- so there is still a distadvantage to dying from air attack. If you are concerned about being able to tell if you get killed by a bomb vs. being hit by a tank round, remember that, for a bomb hit, there will be the whistle of the dropping bomb followed by the hit and death; whereas getting killed by a tank-round sounds like this: click here for a short gun-camera film.

Deaths as gunners do not count as using up a player's life.

Deaths in M3's and SdKfz 251's do not count as using up a tanker's life.

If you get disconnected, ask the CM if you can relaunch. If you get permission, you can relaunch, and the disconnect does not use up one of your lives.

Personnel assigned to aircraft may not drive vehicles. Likewise personnel assigned to vehicles may not fly aircraft.

Resupply of bases is not allowed.

Resupply of damaged vehicles is allowed.

20 troops are required to capture a base.  Capture of bases other than those targeted for the ground battle do not count and is prohibited.  Bases must be captured by ground assault.  Use of Paratroopers is not allowed.

Promptly at the end of the frame, the CM's will instruct all players to disengage from combat.  All combat will cease.  A 30 minutes grace is given for aircraft to get back to their takeoff bases.  After 30 the CM's will implement a strong downwind at frame end that will force all aircraft in the air to crash. Once all of these aircraft are down, the logs will be closed for scoring purposes. After disengagement, GV's should head back to an Active Base and exit. If they can't make it back to an Active Base, they should just stay in their vehicles and not exit until after end log.

Puffy ack and auto ack will be reduced in lethality. See settings.

Do not fly outside the boundaries of the map unless you are chasing an enemy who has flown outside the boundaries of the map.

Other than as as follows, aircraft may not specifically attack tanks and troop carriers (M3's, SdKfz). Each frame, only one gruppen of FW 190F-8's (12 planes max) and one regiment of Il-2's (12 planes max) are given permission to specifically attack tanks and troop carriers. This is because we don't have large numbers of GV players yet in scenarios (unlike the real battle, that had much larger numbers of GV's than planes). However, all aircraft can attack buildings, Wirblewinds, Ostwinds, ground guns, and ground objects, and if a GV is near such a target, it might get destroyed by the collateral damage -- GV'ers be aware that these other things are valid targets for all aircraft.

Group Leaders, please name your groups according to the names in the "Order of Battle" section. Please do not name them "Bob's killers", "Blue Squadron", "Interceptors", etc. If they are given their correct names, it is much easier for CM's to check things in the logs and during the frames.

If you have poor frame rates on this terrain, try turning off local water reflections. (Go into "Options->Graphic detail", click "Advanced" button, uncheck "local water reflections".)

Your Group Leader will tell you which are the Active Bases for the frame -- please write that information down.

When you have no more lives, please volunteer to be a gunner.

CO's can eject a player from the arena if the player is not following orders, breaking rules, being insubordinate, or being a nuissance. To do so, send a PM to the CM giving the players AH handle and that you want him ejected -- i.e., ".p roscoroo eject mrproblem".

Players who are CM's but not running the scenario should not use any of their CM abilities (such as god's-eye mode or looking at logs).

Settings

Terrain: Rhinesum.res

Wind: 0 mph at 0-6k altitude, 5 to 15 mph from one direction on up.

Weather: Generally as follows. Overcast, gray skies. Cirrostratus up high (25,000 ft or more). Altostratus around 15,000 ft. Scattered cumulus below that. However, might vary frame to frame.

Radar and Sector Counters: Radar contact will result in a display of "DarBar" sector counters within the indicated range of friendly radar towers and at alitudes above 1500 ft. above-ground level. Above 28,000 feet "DotDar" will be enabled within the radar radius for both sides. Radar towers will be set to a hardness such that they indestructible (as in the real battle, people didn't know where they were, and there were mobile and camoflaged installations).

WARNING: The function of sector counters is somewhat buggy currently. There are cases where aircraft above 1500 ft AGL do not show up as sector counters when they should and cases where aircraft below 1500 ft AGL continue to appear as sector counters yet should not. In agregate, when there are lots of planes in the sky, it mostly works. But be warned -- there is some "fog of war" with this functionality.

Object down time: All objects will respawn at the start of the next frame.

Country order: 3, 1, 2. This makes (as usual for scenarios) allies the Bishops, axis the Knights, and rooks as walkon country.

All other settings are the default settings listed here: http://ahevents.org/images/stories/scenarios_images/defaultSettingDocument/defaultArenaSettings.html

Reasons for Various Aspects of Rules

Start Time and Closing of Admittance

Admittance into the Special Events Arena will be turned off right after start time elapses. This is because the sides in the scenario need a little time to get their players assigned, briefed, and settled before takeoff. We have found -- based on many previous scenarios -- that if admittance to the arena is not closed, players drift in late, and curious players who haven't heard of scenarios before continue to pop in to see what is going on. While we very much want players in scenarios, it is a large organizational problem to deal with players trickling in right up to takeoff or to deal with new players asking lots of questions about scenarios while trying to get things ready for takeoff. To accommodate players who show up on time but get disconnected in the initial stages of the scenario, admittance will be turned back on 30 minutes after the start time.

Aspects Particularly Different from Main Arena

This section is for describing some (not all) of the aspects to this scenario that are particularly different compared to flying in the Main Arena.

Increasing Aircraft Range

In scenarios, there are times when using techniques to increase aircraft range might be important. Setting the engine's RPM and manifold settings to the "max cruise" settings in the E6B will result in more range than full military power and is a good choice for a pilot who has no idea what might work better. However, there are times when settings different from the max-cruise settings will result in even greater range, such as lowering the RPM farther than max-cruise settings. Also, the E6B information does not suggest altitudes for cruising. If you have a longer distance to travel, it may be best to climb at military power to high altitude, then lower the RPM below the max-cruise settings. For shorter distances or for aircraft that do not perform well at high altitude, 10-20k might work better. Figuring out a plan for fuel management is, for some scenarios, a useful part of preparation.

Wind/Weather

This scenario implements wind and clouds. Level bombing in wind is a bit different than bombing without wind, in terms of accuracy and techniques that are best to hit targets. You might want to suggest to your bomber pilots that they practice bombing in wind prior to the scenario if they are not familiar with the impact of wind.

The clouds will be thicker in places than is typical in the Main Arena.

Scoring and Logs

Logs and scores will be posted after the test frame and after frame 4, but not during the scenario.

For CM's:

CM Reference

MOTD. The following can be copy and pasted to use as the MOTD, with appropriate number for frame number.

Welcome to the scenario Red Storm - Krupp Steel!

Show up at or before 3 pm Eastern Time to play.

If you are not registered, you are welcome to play,
but please change to country Rook,
go to a1 tower, and type on channel 200,
"Walkon requesting assignment."

If you need back in and the arena is locked, please
enter ".p roscoroo let me in" into a radio text buffer
such as from the Main Arena. Try getting into the
arena thereafter even if the games says the arena
is locked -- the screen doesn't update quickly.
Once in, type ".p roscoroo i'm in".

Allies = Bishops
Axis = Knights
walkons = Rook

CM checklist. Prior to Start Time:

• Announce to players to remind CM if he doesn't announce "logs started".
• Load terrain.
• Load tables.
• Rotate countries if needed. Make sure axis fields are Knight, allied fields are Bishop.
• Change field ownership if needed.
• Set MOTD.
• Check that correct planes are enabled at correct fields -- make sure ground guns are enabled everywhere. Save if any changes done.
• Check arena variables and resave all the non-default ones. Save if any changes done.
• Set object settings.
• Destroy any objects needed -- making sure to detonate guns at cities and factories with incorrect country ownership.
• Set .icon.
• Set wind.
• Remember to do .startlog before takeoffs.
• Get walkon field number for axis and allies.
• Remember ".vset locked 0" unlocks arena.

Timing Table

For Practice Terrain

Suggest the following changed settings for practice. Also, enable all scenario planes at all fields, both sides, so that peopel can do combat against each other from same field.

References

• Schlachtflieger - Luftwaffe Ground-Attack Units 1937-1945 by Various
• Bagration to Berlin – The Final Air Battles in the East 1944-1945 by Christer Bergstrom
• Jagdwaffe War in the East 1944-1945 by Christer erstrom and Martin Pegg
• http://www.ww2.dk/
• http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/index.htm
• http://wapedia.mobi/en/Gro%C3%9Fdeutschland_Division?t=10
• http://www.fprado.com/armorsite/tigers-02.htm
• http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=1064
• http://www.battlefield.ru/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/lang,en/
• http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/index.htm
  

Credits

Scenario design: Fencer

Terrain:  asw / DUX

Game-day CM: Roscoroo

Scenario CM's: Brooke (Team Lead), Roscoroo, Newman, and Fencer

Rules writeup: Fencer

Allied CO: Have (BBS: Have)

Axis CO: RedTail7 (BBS: Swareiam)

Change Log

v1
-- Main release of rules writeup.

v2
-- Planes can now refuel at any base (instead of just at Active Bases).
-- Made radar towers indestructible (as in real battle, pilots didn't know where it was, and there were camoflaged and mobile units).
-- Clarified that "Each side must seriously pursue all of its objectives" boils down to meaning just that each side has to attack at least one (although preferably more than one) strategic bombing target.
-- Will use "Disable Strat Supply" in StratFlags, to turn off supply to cities and factories, so that dead buildings stay down the whole frame. Trains and convoys will still run, but they do not deliver any supplies.
-- Corrected tower times listed in the "Timing Table" section.
-- Corrected that CM to contact if arena is locked is Roscoroo (not Brooke).
-- Added warning about sector counters sometimes not working entirely for all aircraft; i.e., that there can be some "fog of war" to the workings of sector counters.