Additional American Targets:

Japanese Active Air Bases: A94, A31, A37, A33, A17, A56, A58, A49 and A50.

Japanese Strategic Targets:

Additional Japanese Targets:

Ship Summary

Axis Ships – Located in Visayan Sea (3 TG)
One Destroyer Group – destroy CV
Two Reinforcement Convoys

Allied Ships – Located in Leyte Gulf (4 TG)
Two CVE Task Groups – destroy 1 DD
Two Supply Convoys

Allied Ships – Located in Ormoc Bay (2 TG)
Two Destroyer Groups – destroy CV

Frame One Map

Frame 2

The Japanese continue to attempt to run reinforcements to Leyte at A21. Meanwhile an American invasion force is entering Ormoc bay with the intention to land troops at A21 in an attempt to capture the base. Air attacks continue on the invasion forces east of Leyte. Both sides are bombing enemy concentrations on the islands of the southern Philippines.

Mission orders from HQ: Frame 2 Orders.

American Active Air Bases: A12, A16, A42, A43, and A113.

American Strategic Targets:

Additional American Targets:

Japanese Active Air Bases: A94, A31, A37, A33, A17, A52, A56, A58, A49 and A50.

Japanese Strategic Targets:

Additional Japanese Targets:

Ship Summary

Axis Ships – Located in Visayan Sea (4 tg)
Two Destroyer Groups – destroy CV
Two Reinforcement Convoys

Allied Ships – Located in Leyte Gulf (3 tg)
Two CVE Task Groups – destroy 1 DD
One Supply Convoy

Allied Ships – Located in Ormoc Bay (3 tg)
Two Destroyer Groups – destroy CV
One Invasion Convoy

Frame Two Map

Frame 3

The Americans have beaten down active Japanese air resistance in the southern most islands. The Japanese have withdrawn all their air groups to the area near Mindoro. In the Sulu Sea a United States Navy invasion force is moving north toward Mindoro. Code Named "Love III" the invasion force left Leyte on December 12, 1944. The invasion force consists of a large transport contingent, escorting warships and three escort carrier task groups. The plan is to take Mindoro to use it as a base to launch a follow up attack on the main island of Luzon. Meanwhile the Japanese are still running troop convoys to the various islands to reinforce the garrisons.

In order to more accurately represent the amount of air cover for the Mindoro invasion force in balance with our Japanese forces, the two Marine Squadrons (VMF-115 and VMF-211) previously based near Leyte will be moved to a third escort carrier task group and based there for the final two frames.

Mission orders from HQ: Frame 3 Orders.

American Active Air Bases: A33, A12, A16, A42, A43, and A113 -- and a18 and a21.

American Strategic Targets:

Additional American Targets:

Japanese Active Air Bases: A17, A13, A56, A58, A95, A59, a63, A60, A49 and A50.

Japanese Targets:

Additional Japanese Targets:

Ship Summary

Axis Ships – Located east of Mindoro (2 tg)
Two Reinforcement Convoys

Allied Ships – Located in Sulu Sea (5 tg)
Three CVE Task Groups – destroy 1 DD
Two Invasion Convoys

Frame Three Map

Frame 4

In the Sulu Sea the Americans continue to move their invasion fleet toward Mindoro. The invasion force consists of a large transport contingent, escorting warships and three escort carrier task groups. The Army Air Forces on Leyte continue their assault on the enemy forces on and around Mindoro. The Japanese are attacking the Mindoro invasion force again this frame as it continues north toward Mindoro.

Mission orders from HQ: Frame 4 Orders.

American Active Air Bases: A33, A12, A16, A42, A43, and A113 -- and a18 and a21.

American Strategic Targets:

American Additional Targets:

Japanese Active Air Bases: A13, A56, A58, A95, A59, a63, A60, A49 and A50.

Japanese Targets:

Additional Japanese Targets:

Ship Summary

Axis Ships – Located east of Mindoro (2 tg)
Two Reinforcement Convoys

Allied Ships – Located in Sulu Sea (5 tg)
Three CVE Task Groups – destroy 1 DD
Two Invasion Convoys

Frame Four Map

Settings

Weather: Weather might be varied with low-lying clouds at times mixed with medium and high altitude cloud banks. Bad weather is possible with heavy clouds at varying altitudes.

Terrain: mindan09

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

Radar and Sector Counters: Sector counters will show when a plane is within 25 miles of radar towers and above 1500 ft. Planes above 26,000 ft will show as dots on radar over 100 miles. Radar updates every 4 minutes.

Destroyed Objects: Fighter hangars, bomber hangars, ammo bunkers, fuel bunkers, and radar towers all stay down only 6 minutes after being destroyed. All other objects, once destroyed, stay destroyed the whole frame. All objects will respawn at the start of the next frame, including ships and including American CVE's (simulating that there were several American CVE's that could be called upon). Also note hardness of various objects below.

Auto Acks: Greatly reduced lethality, including for "puffy" ack. See setting below, where 1.0 is normal in Main Arena. This means low level attacks by B-25's and Ki-67's will not be precluded by auto ack alone.

Ordnance. Disable 1000 lb bombs and rockets for US fighters.

Note in the object settings below, "Down Time" is not the actual down time in minutes. Actual down time in minutes is "Down Time" times DownTimeMult given in the above table.

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

Settings that don't stick and need to be done every setup: wind, disabling weapons, objects settings and destruction, jumping task groups.

To destroy correct things at task groups, here is an example for c73. If you do it while in the hangar, you can see it working.
-- .det f73bat 1 (destroys 40 mm and some single 5")
-- .det f73baa 1 (destroys rest of single 5", twin 5", and 8")
-- .restore f73baa000c 1, 00d, 00e (restores the three 8")

Destroy the guns at the country strat targets:
-- .det c01gng 1 (and for c02 and c03)

Why are we using mission orders?

For this scenario, we are trying out more specificity to missions. We have done this for a few reasons motivated by the fact that players are the most-important part of scenarios, and we feel that this will enhance the sceneario experience for them. First, it increases the likelihood that players are flying missions that have the feel of the history upon which the scenario is based. Second, it reduces the workload a bit on command staffs and thus helps us broaden out the pool of possible CO's. Command staffs still have to determine routing, timing, execution (including tactical implementation), pick GL's, form their sides into effective fighting forces, and so on. But now they do not have to create missions from scratch and instead have a starting point. Third, it ensures that every group has its shot at action.

Scenarios are a balance of many things (action, realism, playability, side balance, and so on), many of which pull in different directions. From time to time in scenarios, we try new things and see how they do. We will try this mission method in this 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 "Philippine Phandango"!

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 a63, and type on channel 200,
"Walkon requesting assignment."

If you need back in and the arena is locked, please
enter ".p fencer 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 fencer i'm in".

Allies = Bishops
Axis = Knights
walkons = Rook

CM checklist. Prior to Show-Up Time:

• Announce to players to remind CM if he doesn't announce "logs started".
• Load terrain.
• Rotate countries if needed. Make sure axis fields are Knight, allied fields are Bishop.
• Load tables.
• Change field ownership if needed.
• Set MOTD.
• Set tower clock to Pacific time.
• 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 -- has to happen *after* setting object down times.
• Set wind.
• Set weapons disallowed.
• Remember to do .startlog before takeoffs.
• Get walkon field number for axis and allies.

Timing Table

References

Battle of Ormoc Bay
USS Kadashan Bay CVE 76
Fletcher Class Destroyers
Marine Aviation at Leyte and Samar
Japanese Reinforcement Convoys
Japanese TA Operations A Blueprint for Disaster
Flying Buccaneers - The Illustrated Story of Kenney's Fifth Air Force, by Steve Birdsall, ISBN 0-385-03218-8
At War With The Wind, by David Sears, ISBN 0-8065-2893-1
Possum, Clover & Hades: The 475th Fighter Group in World War II (Schiffer Military History), by John Stanaway, ISBN 0-887-40518-5
Attack & Conquer: The 8th Fighter Group in World War II, by John Stanaway & Lawrence Hickey
Warpath Across The Pacific: The Illutrated history of the 345th Bombardment Group During World War II, by Lawrence Hickey
OPERATIONS OF THE EIGHTH ARMY IN THE SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES (http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/MacArthur%20Reports/MacArthur%20V1/ch11.htm)

Designer Historical Notes:

With each scenario we balance play and the planeset to bring to you historical battles. In this scenario there are a few things which do not line up with history. I wish to point these out for the sake of accuracy and understanding of the events we are depicting.

Credits

Scenario design: Fencer
Terrain: mrmidi
Scenario CM's: Brooke (Team Lead) and Fencer
Allied CO: Spikes
Axis CO: K-KEN

Change Log

This section mentions the changes in each version, so that when changes are made to this document, people don't need to read the whole document to find out where the changes are.

Note on terminology: In this section, "Clarified" has a very precise meaning. If a rule is listed as being "Clarified", it means that the rule and its intent is not being changed but that the explanation herein is being improved to make the rule and its intent more clear. Rules re sometimes clarified during a scenario based on player questions or misunderstandings about wording.

v0.1,  3-28-10
-- First posting.

v0.2,  6-05-10
-- Revised with new scenario design standards.
-- Removed kamikazes.
-- Remove invasion and supply ground portions.
-- Remove F6D photo recon unit and tasks.

v0.3,  6-05-10
-- Minor edits for spelling and typos.
-- Added P-47s to description section.
-- Added one Japanese reinforcement convoy to Frame 2, for total of 2.

v0.4,  6-10-10
-- Change VMF-115 to F4U-1A to match actual usage. Found good information on both untis to confirm plane types.
-- Changed description of CVs in objects destroy from British to American.
-- Changed radar sector counter range from 50 miles to 30 miles.
-- Changed alt below which sector counters don't show from 2500 to 1500 feet.
-- Added another book reference.

v1.0,  6-16-10
-- Added in victory conditions.
-- Miscellaneous other stuff.
-- Change radar mode to reflect counter based only until 30,000 feet then everyone sees you.
-- Changed radar sector counter range from 30 miles to 25 miles.
-- Change base flash to 7.0 miles for bombers, 6 miles for fighters.
-- Changed alt below which sector counters don't show from 2500 to 1500 feet.
-- Added book references.

v1.1,  6-17-10
-- Modified Victory conditions to show numbers in lieu of percentages.
-- Deleted TBM-1C from both CVE Air Groups.

v1.2,  6-19-10
-- Modified Victory conditions again to simplify them.
-- Added requirement to sink one CVE for Axis in Frames 3 and 4 to balance number of victory requirements.
-- Reduced players to around 100 per side.
-- Increased damage required for each ship.
-- Reduced bomber max height to 16,000ft.
-- Reduced overall max height to 26,000ft.
-- Deleted A34 and added A33 to Allied bases for F3 and F4.
-- Limited A33 to squadron assigned for fleet coverage.
-- Deleted A17 from Axis bases in F4.
-- Changed the front line.

v2, 6/19/2010
-- Touched up html formatting.
-- Changed the "Changes to Scenario Planning" section to "Why are we using mission orders? ", and changed content of that.
-- Put onto ahevents.org.
-- Put town buildings hardness at 100,000 lbs (as they aren't a target, so made them nearly indestructible).

v3, 6/19/2010
-- Lowered ship objectives.
-- Modified a little "Why are we using mission orders?"

v4, 6/20/2010
-- Got rid of TBM.
-- Put in correct maps.

v5, 6/24/2010
-- Linked in order pdf's.

v6, 7/1/2010
-- Got rid of P-47D-11's. All are now P-47D-25's.

v7, 7/25/2010
-- In "Victory Conditions" section, have put in "After a side has pursued all of its mission orders from High Command (which must be pursued first as highest priority), it can pursue secondary missions of its own choosing (missions, sweeps, patrols, or just go after targets of opportunity subject to each group's initiative, etc.)."
-- In "Summary of Constraints" section, see "Note about strategic targets".
-- RadarUpdateRate increased to 5 minutes.
-- In "Summary of Constraints" section, see "Once a task-group is completely destroyed."
-- Have filled in settings to make CV hardness 14,000 lbs and CA/DD hardness 4000 lbs (not a change -- just filling in the appropriate settings).
-- Filled in allied and axis CO's in "Credits".
-- Made it clear that there are no torps available for B-25 (not possible in game).
-- Adjusted numbers of aircraft for smaller registration.

v8, 7/25/2010
-- Put in mission orders as html file (easier to edit).
-- Put in dates and times for scenario.

v9, 8/4/2010
-- Final version.
-- Put in ColorFog[Day] and ColorSky[Day] and added some of the settings that were missing in the table or still labelled as under the old AH system.
-- Set Gun Bat, Gun Bat Armor, Gun Bat Soft, and Hard Gun Bat down times to 180 so that taking out 40 mm and 5" on ships at the start do not come back up during frame.
-- In current version of AH, there are twin 40 mm and quad 40 mm (not just quad 40 mm like before), so just refer to 40 mm as "40 mm".
-- Got rid of some outdated items in CM setup checklist.
-- Added list of what CM commands to use to setup the ship guns the easiest way.
-- Added summary of which ships are present in each frame.

v9.1, 8/10/2010
-- Mission orders for frame 2 needed adjustment so that allies aren't outnumbered in Leyte area and axis outnumbered in Visayan Sea area. Did this by adjusting mission of 8 planes from 200th Sentai.
-- Frames 3 and 4 likewise need such adjusting, which will happen shortly.
-- Make it more clear that a group must complete its missions from HQ before the CO can give it some other mission.
-- Make it more clear that pilots can re-arm only at *active* bases, not any friendly base.
-- Corrected error in listing a53 as active base for frame 1 (it isn't).
-- Put in statement that, if there is conflict between a map and what is written in text, the map takes precedence (in terms of listing targets, active bases, etc.).
-- Put in CM setup section reminder to do .det c01gng 1, etc.
-- Get rid of references to TBM's, as they aren't in this scenario.

v9.2, 8/17/2010
-- For frame 3 orders, mistakenly refer to "Visayan Sea" in orders for 345th BG -- should be "sea east of Mindoro" instead. Mistakenly refer to "Negros" for 77th Sentai -- should be "Mindoro" instead.
-- Give the allies a18 and a21 to use in frames 3 and 4.
-- Gave a destination for Japanese shipping in frame 3.
-- Still need to look over frame 4 mission orders to make sure they are OK. Will do this shortly.

v9.3, 8/20/2010
-- Adjusted frame-3 destination sectors for ships as per agreement between the two CO's.
-- Fixed error in active fields of Japanese for frames 3 and 4 (a59 was listed twice and a63 wasn't listed, but is correct in maps).

v9.4, 8/23/2010
-- In mission orders for frame 4, got rid of incorrect reference to Visayan Sea.
-- Adjusted frame-4 destination sectors for ships to be the same as frame 3 (except stating that map edges should be avoided by half a sector).