Tunisia, February 1943
Version 1 -- draft, not final version

Sections

• Date and Time
• Setting
• Main Rules
• Map
• Victory Conditions
• Allowed Targets
• Allied Order of Battle
• Axis Order of Battle
• Moving Around Pilots
• Items of Note
• Settings
• CM Items
• Timing Table
• References
• Credits
• Change Log

Date and Time

This is a single-frame, 12-hour format.  People are not expected to fly all 12 hours of the battle (although they can if they want to) but to fly what portions of it they desire.  Takeoffs are enabled on each hour mark, with takeoffs enabled for 5 minutes before fields are closed.  Walkons are welcome and will be assigned to whichever side is lowest in numbers at that time.

• October [x], 2016
• Show-up Time is 11:30 am Eastern (8:30 am Pacific, 4:30 pm London, 3:30 pm UTC) for those initiating the battle.
• End of hostilities is midnight Eastern (9 pm Pacific, 5 am London, 4 am UTC).
• Special Events II arena.

Setting

In November, 1942, the Allies launched Operation Torch and landed forces on the northern coast of Africa.  The Axis, which had been fighting the British and Commonwealth in North Africa since 1940, now had to defend on two fronts, one with the US 12th Air Force and one with the British and Commonwealth Western Desert Air Force.  The Allies initially made rapid progress in hammering the Axis back into Tunisia, but a series of reinforcements enabled the Axis to stand firm and by December to regain some lost territory.  In January, 1943, the 12th AF moved aircraft closer to the action, and there were numerous battles back and forth, with neither side gaining the upper hand.

Now it is February, 1943, and it is time to decide which side will prevail.

This Scenario focuses on the Axis's western front with the P-38's, Spitfire's, P-40's, P-39's, A-20's, B-25's, B-26's, and B-17's of the US 12th Air Force vs. the Bf 109's, FW 190's, C.202's, Bf 110's, and Ju 88's of the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica.

There will be fighter combat, bomber intercepts, escorting, bombing, ground attack, and anti shipping, as each side tries to cut off the enemy's supplies, to kill the enemy's aircraft, and to destroy the enemy's ground forces and infrastructure.

Please join us for this day of battle over the deserts of Tunisia.

Main Rules

The following 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.)

• Please follow instructions from command, or you can be ejected from the arena.
• Unlimited lives, but limited takeoff windows for new aircraft (each hour mark for 5 minutes).
• Please consider being a gunner if you have to wait for a launch window.
• Downwind will be enabled at 22k ft -- but you can maneuver above that as you see fit.
• Level bombers (B-25's, B-26's, B-17's, and Ju 88's):
  • May not fly higher than 15k.
  • May not dive bomb.
  • Must take off whenever possible with formations and not intentionally lose drones.
• Attack planes (A-20's and FW 190F's):
  • May not fly higher than 15k as long as you are carrying bombs.

Map

Victory Conditions

If your side fails to do each and every one of these things, it will get no points at all.

• Each level-bomber group and attack group must Attempt at least one bombing mission in each hour segment.
• Each level bomber group and attack group must Attempt at least two bombing missions to enemy shipping during the course of the event.
• "Attempt" means to bomb the target or either die trying or be driven off by enemy attacks.

Points:

• 1 point per kill in the log.
• 0.3 points per object destroyed by the named level-bomber groups.
• 0.3 points per object destroyed by the named attack groups.
• 6 points per ship sunk.
• Level-bomber groups are ones named "301st", "319th", "97th", "KG 54", or "KG 76".
• Attack groups are ones named "47th", "SKG 10", or "ZG 26".

Allowed Targets

Allowed targets are any land targets in the "Land Target Area" marked on the map except for the following, which are not targets:  the city of Tunis, the HQ complex near Tunis, and the towns at a8, a66, a67, a68.  The reason for these exceptions is to even out the targets available on each side.

Also, ships in the "Allied Ships Area" and "Axis Ships Area" are valid targets.  Ships can go anywhere inside those areas but not move outside them.  Each side will have one task group of ships at the start of the battle.  One more task group will be added to each side at the half-way mark (+6 hours in).  The ships represent supply shipping into North Africa.

Allied Order of Battle (12th AF)

Aircraft are enabled at a5 (Bone), a65 (Youkes les Bains), and a13 (Constantine).  Also, fighters and attack aircraft are enabled at v95 -- note that takeoffs from there can be tricky.

Axis Order of Battle (LW and RA)

Aircraft are enabled at a1 (Tunis), a66 (Bizerte), and a7 (Sousse).  [Should we enable a59 (Cagliari)?  Ju 88's often came fron Sicily.]

Moving Around Pilots

CO's may split groups up into separate flights and send them on separate missions as they see fit.

CO's may assign walkons as they see fit up to the limit of slots available.

CO's may move registered pilots to different aircraft if the registered pilots are willing.  But if a registered pilot wants to keep the plane he is registered for, he must be allowed to stay in that plane.

Items of Note

Town buildings are enormously harder than in the Main Arena.  The level bombers will be able to kill a bunch of buildings, but attack aircraft would not kill many.

Ships have 20 mm defense guns, not 8", 5", or quad 40 mm ack.

Auto ack is turned way down.  Manned ack is normal strength.

Settings

Disabled weapons

Disable the following.

• A-20G:  external bombs.
• Bf 109G-2:  rockets, bombs.
• Bf 109G-6:  rockets, bombs.
• Bf 110C-4b:  rockets.
• FW 190A-5:  rockets, bombs.
• FW 190F-8:  rockets, wing-mounted bombs, sap bomb.
• Ju 88A-4:  torpedoes.
• P-38G:  bombs.
• P-39D:  bombs.
• P-40F:  bombs.
• Spit V:  bombs.

Details

Terrain. tunisia.

Wind. 45 mph downwind at 22k.

Clouds. Medium clouds.

Radar and Sector Counters. No radar or sector counters below 1000 ft.  Sector counters above 1000 ft.  Radar above 15k.

Ack: Auto ack will be turned way down.  Ships will not have 5", 8", or quad 40 mm.

Hardness and Downtime:  Town hardness is greatly increased.  City is indestructible.  CV is 6000 lbs to kill.  Other ships are 3000 lbs to kill. [].  Several things have lower down time -- see below.

ArenaFlags = 13358
BomberWarningRange = 26,400 (5 miles)
CountryChangeTime = (no changing of countries once started)
ExitWhileMoving = 508
FighterWarningRange = 26,400 (5 miles)
FlightModeFlags = 5248
FuelBurnRateMult = 1.0
GroundAutoLethality[Armored] = 0.15
GroundAutoLethality[Hard] = 0.15
GroundAutoLethality[Soft] = 0.15
ObjectHardness[SHP] = 0.75 [have to test effect of ship hardness settings to get CV 6000, others 3000]
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

Bmbr hgr, down time = 5
Bombable, hardness = 100[]
Bunk ammo, down time = 5
Bunk radar, down time = 5
City, hardness = 100[]
Ftr hgr, down time = 5
HQ, hardness = 100[]
Ship, hardness = 4[]
Town, hardness = 4, downtime = 60 [or should down time be default?]

CM Items

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

Welcome to the Scenario "Tunisia, February 1943"!

Fields are open each hour on the hour for 5 minutes.

P-38, Spit, P-39, P-40, A-20, B-25, B-26, B-17 vs.
Bf 109, FW 190, Bf 110, Ju 88.

If you are not registered, you are welcome to play,
but please join whichever of Bishops or Knights
has the least numbers.

Allies = Bishops
Axis = Knights
walkons = Rook

Timing Table[]

References

http://www.milhist.net/usaaf/mto43a.html .  USAAF combat chronology for 1943 in North Africa.

http://www.ww2study.com/12th.html .  List of 12th AF groups in North Africa.

http://www.comandosupremo.com/rana.html/2 . Regia Aeronautica in North Africa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagdgeschwader_53 . Which JG in North Africa.

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/luftwaffe-over-tunisia-february-may.html . Luftwaffe in Tunisia.

Weal, John. Junkers Ju 88 Kampfgeschwader in North Africa and the Mediterranean (Combat Aircraft) (Kindle Location 5). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Scutts, Jerry. Bf 109 Aces of North Africa and the Mediterranean (Aircraft of the Aces) (Kindle Location 5). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Ethell, Jeffrey. Eagles Over North Africa and the Mediterranean: 1940 – 1943 (Luftwaffe at War) (Kindle Location 7). Pen and Sword. Kindle Edition.

Heaton, Colin D.; Lewis, Anne-Marie. The Star of Africa: The Story of Hans Marseille, the Rogue Luftwaffe Ace Who Dominated the WWII Skies . Zenith Press. Kindle Edition.

McAulay, Lex. P-40 Ace: Wing Commander Nicky Barr OBE MC DFC* RAAF (Kindle Location 5). Banner Books. Kindle Edition.

McAulay, Lex. Against Four Enemies: The wartime flying career of Group Captain Alan Rawlinson DFC* RAAF (Kindle Location 3). Banner Books. Kindle Edition.

I used ZG 26 even though they were gone prior to 1943.  110's are in for balance.

FW 190F's not used in 1943 -- they were 190A's, but the F has about same performance and allows me to enable bombs on just the ground attackers.

A-20A is a Boston III.  However, the 8x.303's result in unbalanced scoring on strafing vs. cannons of 190F's and 110C's, so put in A-20G, but no wing-mounted bombs (so is about same as A-20A except for better forward guns).

Credits

Scenario design: Brooke and Scenario community.

Game-day CM:  Brooke.

Allied CO:  [xxx].

Axis CO:  [xxx].

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 are sometimes clarified during a scenario based on player questions or misunderstandings about wording.

v1, 7/24/2016
-- First draft.