Dates and Times
Setting
Style of Battle
Main Rules
Map
Victory Conditions
Order of Battle -- VVS
Order of
Battle -- Luftwaffe
VVS Target List
LW Target List
Items of Note
Settings
Show-Up Time for this scenario is 3 pm Eastern Time in the Special Events II arena. The arena is closed to admittance after Show-Up Time. The dates are:
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 brooke 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).
Frames will run for 3 hours after takeoff, then a cease fire will be called, and planes will land at the nearest base.
It's 1943, and one of the largest battles of WWII is underway. The Germans and the Soviets are slugging it out on a continent-wide front along the Dnieper River.
Gone are the Wehrmacht's quick early gains on the Eastern Front. The Red Army has grown gigantic and is taking back vast regions of land. Now, it is the Germans' turn for desperation. They are back across the Dnieper river but making the Soviets pay dearly for every crossing. In September, '43, men, tanks, and aircraft fight over the mud and in the skies.
In the air, it is the Bf 109's, FW 190's, and Ju 88's of the mighty Luftwaffe vs. the La-5's, Yak-9's, Yak-7's, P-39's, Il-2's, and Tu-2's of the surging VVS -- in air-to-air combat, bombing, ground attack, escort, and intercept. On the ground, Panzer IV H's slug it out with T-34/76's.
Please join us for this monumental battle between the Germans and the Soviets.
Eastern Front battles were gritty tactical affairs, with lots of tactical bombing, ground attack, and fights at low altitude. Air fields were close to the front, and it was not unusual for pilots to fly many missions in a single day, quickly going from takeoff into battle. The weather was notoriously bad, adding to the reason why fights often took place below 15,000 ft.
Expect such an authentic feel from this scenario. :)
The following is are the main rules. (There are rules in addition to these, listed below, that the Command Staff must be aware of and communicate to pilots as appropriate.)
Targets and forward air
bases
for the air battle inside red box.
Available spawn
points for the ground battle (which is an area between Kursk and Kharkov).
If your side fails to do each and every one of these things in a frame, it will get no points at all in the frame. A "sortie" means taking off, going out on an operational mission, and landing (even if that is just to refuel/rearm at a base other than your home base) -- or to die trying this.
Points for the air battle:
Points for the ground battle:
The air battle and the ground battle will be separate, non-interacting battles and will be scored separately. The winner of the frame's air battle is the side with the most points for the air battle that frame. The winner of the scenario's air battle is the winner of the most frames' air battles. Likewise for the ground battle.
| Group | Aircraft | Num. pilots |
| 240 IAP | La-5FN | 9 |
| 9 GIAD | P-39Q | 7 |
| 434 IAP | Yak-7b | 7 |
| 4 IAP | Yak-9T | 7 |
| 7 GShAP | Il-2 | 6 |
| 35 GBAP | Tu-2S | 8 |
| 4th Guards Tank Corps | T-34/76 | 4 |
The VVS can use forward airfields a58 and a64 and rear airfield a8. a8 has unlimited Wirblewinds available for field defense. Other fields have only mannable ground guns.
T-34/76 is available in unlimited numbers for ground combat from v45 and a125.
| Gruppen | Aircraft | Num. pilots |
| I/JG 52 | Bf 109G-6 | 7 |
| II/JG 52 | Bf 109G-6 | 7 |
| III/JG 52 | Bf 109G-6 | 7 |
| I/JG 54 | FW 190A-5 | 9 |
| SG 2 | FW 190F-8 | 6 |
| KG 3 | Ju 88A-4 | 8 |
| XXXXVIII Panzer Corps | Panzer IV H | 4 |
The Luftwaffe can use forward airfields a9 and a52 and rear airfield a53. a53 has unlimited Wirblewinds available for field defense. Other fields have only mannable ground guns.
Panzer IV H is available in unlimited numbers for ground combat from v47.
Anything at:
Nothing else is an allowed target. Objects regenerate and have default hardness except as noted in "Settings" section.
Anything at:
Nothing else is an allowed target. Objects regenerate and have default hardness except as noted in "Settings" section.
I am thinking that AH3 will be released prior to this Scenario. Cities in the AH3 blksea terrain are very large and spread out. The house-sized buildings are not destructible -- the destructible buildings of a city are the ones larger than houses (like apartment buildings, industrial buildings, the giant warehouses, etc.). Also there is at least one indestructible larger building in cities that looks sort of like the old HQ building. City buildings are set to have the same hardness (310 lbs) and downtime (30 minutes) as town buildings.
A city.
Towns have a lot of buildings packed together, and a single pass through with a formation of bombers will typically result in more objects destroyed than a single pass through a city.
Objects are rebuilt during the frame (to account for the fact that there was a lot of stuff to destroy on the Eastern Front, and pilots didn't typically run out of targets). So, be aware that an area might get flattened, and then 30 minutes later, be available to be flattened again. A few objects have downtimes of only 1 minute (see "Settings" section).
Only the groups named for the bomber and ground-attack units will get points for objects destroyed.
Be aware that your forward airfields might come under vigorous enemy attack, just like in the real battle. Your foward airfields are stand ins for the historical fields that were temporary in quality, hacked out of forest near the front lines, and marginally equiped. Auto ack is turned way down compared to the Main Arena, and while you can man ground guns, those can be shot out, and you have no Wirbles available at your forward airfields (only at your rear airfield).
Bases flash when planes are 3 miles from them. This is much closer than in the Main Arena. With sector counters not showing up if planes are under 1000 ft, it is possible that planes could be under 1000 ft and 4 miles from your base, and you would see no counters and no base flashing. 300 mph aircraft can go three miles in half a minute.
Please keep the above in mind. My suggestion is not to take off from a base that isn't clear. If you do and then get shot down, please don't complain about it.
This writeup assumes that AH3 will be out prior to June. If that changes or the workings of AH3 require changes to the writeup, we will do so as needed. If we are using AH2 instead, the AH2 blksea terrain is suitable for this scenario without major changes.
Disable the following.
Terrain: blksea
Clouds: If possible (depending on AH3), weather will vary from gray skies and lots of clouds to somewhat blue skies and moderate clouds.
Radar, Sector Counters, Etc.: Radar ("dot dar") will be on above 15k. Sector counters will be on above 1000 ft. Radar and sector-counter range will be 38 miles. Bomber and fighter warning range (when bases flash) will be 3 miles.
Auto-ack: Auto ack will be turned way down.
ArenaFlags = 13358
BomberWarningRange = 15,840
(3 miles)
CountryChangeTime = (no
changing of countries once started)
ExitWhileMoving = 508
FighterWarningRange = 15,840 (3 miles)
FlightModeFlags
= 5248
FuelBurnRateMult = 1.0
GroundAutoLethality[Armored] = 0.15
GroundAutoLethality[Hard] = 0.15
GroundAutoLethality[Soft] = 0.15
RadarAlt
= 15,000
RadarMode = 458 (tower friendly, tower enemy, plane counters only,
counters above radar, range-based counters)
SectorCounterAlt = 1000
SectorCounterRange = 200,640 (38 miles)
TowerBasedRadarRange = 200,640 (38
miles)
StratFlags = 1
Bunk ammo, down time = 1
Bunk fuel, down time =
1
Bunk radar, down time =
1
Ftr hgr, down time = 1
Bmbr hgr, down time = 1
City, hardness = 0.31,
down time = 30
MOTD. The following can be copy and pasted to use as the MOTD, with appropriate number for frame number.
Welcome to the scenario "Battle of the Dnieper"!
Show up at or before 3 pm Eastern Time to play.
Bf 109G-6, FW 190A-5, FW 190F-8, Ju 88A-4 vs.
La-5FN, Yak-9T, Yak-7b,
P-39Q, Il-2, Tu-2S.
Panzer IV H vs. T-34/76.
If you are not registered, you are welcome to play,
but please change to
country Rook,
and type on channel 200,
"Walkon requesting
assignment."
If you need back in and the arena is locked, please
enter ".p brooke 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.
Allies = Bishops
Axis = Knights
walkons = Rook
| Event | Real Time | Tower Clock | Event tasks |
|
S (Show-Up Time) |
3 pm Eastern, Noon PT | 12:00 |
|
| S+25 = T-5 (Takeoff Countdown) |
| ||
|
T-0 (Takeoff) |
12:30 pm PT | 12:30 pm |
|
| T+3 hours | 3:30 pm PT | 3:30 pm |
|
| T+3:15 | 3:45 pm PT | 3:45 pm |
|
Scenario design: Brooke and Scenario community.
Game-day CM: Brooke.
Allied CO: ROC.
Axis CO: SubwayCH.
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 are sometimes clarified during a scenario based on player questions or misunderstandings about wording.
v1, 3/15/2016
-- First draft.
v2, 3/17/2016
-- Added unit designations in
order of battle.
-- Added more references.
-- Reduced auto-ack lethality a
little.
-- Removed restriction on flight paths. Sortie-number minimums
are good enough to encourage action by all.
-- Added that Ju 88's and Tu-2's
must use formations.
v3, 3/17/2016
-- Added rear airfields in case
foward airfields get capped by enemy.
v4, 3/19/2016
-- Clarify that attack-plane
sorties are to use bombs to qualify for 3-sortie requirement.
-- CO's added.
Yay!
-- Updated description to be September, 1943.
-- Changed sector
counter alt to be 1000 ft (instead of 500 ft).
-- Clarified a couple of
descriptions.
-- Put in radar settings.
-- Put in bomber and fighter
warning ranges.
-- Added a few dedicated tank slots.
-- Reduced from 50
per side to 44 per side in aircraft (more realistic number, I think).
--
Added banner.
v5, 3/20/2016
-- After experimentation on
AH3beta, changing city hardness to 0.31 and downtime to 30 min to match town,
and increasing slightly points for attack planes.
-- Added bunk fuel down
time of 1 minute (as with other bunkers).
-- Added section "Items of Note".
v6, 3/28/2016
-- Clarified that T-34's are
T-34/76's.
-- Added maps from new blksea terrain.
-- Added city names.
-- Changed the tank bases.
-- Emphasize that a few objects have downtime of 1
minute.
v7, 3/31/2016
-- Changed location of tank battle
and spawn points based on battle test.
v8, 4/8/2016
-- Noted in "Items of Note" section
caveats regarding release of AH3.
v9, 5/11/2016
-- Fuel burn rate of 2.0 isn't
playable for Soviet fighters. Setting fuel burn rate to 1.0.