During the Battle of the Bulge from December 16, 1944 to January 16, 1945, Allied and Axis forces were socked in by fierce winter weather conditions. The German Wehrmacht used this opportunity to launch its final winter offensive to stall the advance of Allied forces toward Deutchland. On December 23rd, meteorologists within both side's forces predicted a five-day window of high pressure with clearing skies for operations. The Luftwaffe sought to support the Wehrmacht's victorious surge forward into Belgium, and Allied air forces needed to slow the pace the Axis advance.
This Axes High Scenario will place some of the most-advanced single and twin-engine fighter and attack aircraft of WWII into swirling, mid-to-low-altitude combat over the Hinterland. The "Hinterland" is the name the Germans used to refer to the Netherlands, Holland, Belgium, and portions northern France that were adjacent to the English Channel.
Excerpt from "Airpower in the Battle of the Bulge: A Case for Effects-Based Operations?" by Harold R. Winton:
Initiative in Dispute. Two days later, the desperately hoped-for break finally arrived; and despite the limited ground options for eradicating the Bulge, the Allied air effort contributed substantially to the reversal of German fortunes in the transition phase of the campaign. On 23 December, an eastern high pressure area, known as a “Russian High,” moved to the west over the Ardennes, providing nearly picture-perfect flying conditions for the next five days.32 This resulted in both the Allied air forces and the Luftwaffe surging to their full capacities. Given the disparities in strengths, however, good flying weather provided the British and American forces a substantial advantage that significantly influenced the course of the battle and accelerated the shift of tactical and operational initiative to the Americans.
If your side fails to do each and every one of these things in the frame, it will get no points at all for that frame:
Points (note that points depend on named group -- please get your folks, CO's, walkons, everyone, into the correct named squads for their points to count):
Each frame will be scored separately, with victory going to the side with the most points. The final winner is the side that has won the most frames.
Objects and guns at airfields a116, a117, a119, a121. Guns at factories and towns adjacent to those airfields.
Objects and guns at airfields a115, a118, a120, a155. Guns at factories and towns adjacent to those airfields.
38 Fighters, 8 Bombers
|
# Slots |
Group Name |
Aircraft |
| US 8th and 9th AF | ||
| 6 | 352nd FG | P-51D |
| 6 | 361st FG | P-51D |
| 6 | 405th FG | P-47D-25 |
| 5 | 365th FG | P-47D-40 (attack) |
| 8 | 387th BG | B-26B (level bombers) |
| RAF, 2nd Tactical AF | ||
| 8 | 132 Wing | Spitfire XVI |
| 2 | 122 Wing | Tempest V |
| 5 | 121 Wing | Typhoon IB (attack) |
Available bases for fresh takeoff: a115, a118, a120, a155, a156, and a158. You can rearm/refuel and land anywhere.
If a side has all of its existing airfields capped by the enemy, the side CM will open up a new rear field for the side.
40 Fighters (0.87 of allied total aircraft)
|
# Slots |
Group Name |
Aircraft |
| Luftwaffe | ||
| 10 | JG 6 | Bf 109G-14 |
| 6 | JG 53 | Bf 109K-4 |
| 6 | JG 26 | FW 190D-9 |
| 6 | JG 11 | FW 190A-8 |
| 2 | JG 301 | Ta 152H |
| 5 | I/SG 4 | FW 190F-8 (attack) |
| 5 | III/SG 4 | FW 190F-8 (attack) |
Available bases for fresh takeoff: a116, a117, a119, a121, a122, and a43. You can rearm/refuel and land anywhere.
If a side has all of its existing airfields capped by the enemy, the side CM will open up a new rear field for the side.
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.
Points depend on stats for particular named groups. If you get a walkon who destroys some ground objects but isn't in an the correct named squad, the points won't count. Please get your people into the appropriate named squads. Useful squad dot commands that can be used from your text radio buffer:
Disable the following.
Terrain. germany
Wind. 45 mph downwind at 20k.
Clouds. Some clouds here and there.
Radar and Sector Counters. No radar or sector counters below 1000 ft. Sector counters above 1000 ft. Radar above 12k.
Ack: Auto ack will be turned way down.
ArenaFlags = 13358
BomberWarningRange = 36,960
CommunicationFlags = 3
CountryChangeTime = (no changing of countries once
started)
ExitWhileMoving = 508
FighterWarningRange = 36,960 (7 miles)
FlightModeFlags = 5248
FuelBurnRateMult = 1.0
GroundAutoLethality[Armored] = 0.15
GroundAutoLethality[Hard] = 0.15
GroundAutoLethality[Soft] = 0.15
RadarAlt = 12,000
RadarMode = 458 (tower
friendly, tower enemy, plane counters only, counters above radar, range-based
counters)
SectorCounterAlt = 1000
SectorCounterRange = 158,400 (30
miles)
TowerBasedRadarRange = 158,400 (30 miles)
StratFlags = 1
Arm auto gun, down time = 8
Auto gun, down time = 8
Bmbr hgr, hardness = 7, down time = 8
Bunk
ammo, hardness = 0.7, down time = 8
Bunk barracks, hardness = 0.7, down time
= 8
Bunk fuel, hardness = 0.7, down time = 8
Bunk radar, hardness = 0.7,
down time = 8
Ftr hgr, hardness = 7, down time = 8
Gun bat, down time =
8
Gun bat armor, down time = 8
Gun bat soft, down time = 8
Hard auto
gun, down time = 8
Hard gun bat, down time = 8
Veh hgr, hardness = 7, downtime = 8
MOTD.
Welcome to the Scenario "Hell Over the Hinterland"!
To play, please show up at 3 pm Eastern on Saturday.
If you are not registered, you are welcome to play,
but please stay in
country Rook until you are assigned
to a side.
Fighter pilots get two lives. Attack and bomber pilots
get three
lives.
You use up a life if you die, crash, ditch, bail, or exit
your plane with
anything other than a "landed successfully".
If you need back into the locked arena, type ".p brooke
let me in" into
any text buffer. Then try to come in
even if the arena says its locked.
To Win the Winter Sky: Air War over the Ardennes, 1944-1945, by Danny S. Parker.
Airpower in the Battle of the Bulge: A Case for Effects-Based Operations?, by Harold R. Winton.
Manrho, John; Putz, Ron. Bodenplatte: The Luftwaffe's Last Hope (Stackpole Military History Series).
Air Command and Staff College. The Role of Air Power in the Battle of the Bulge . . Kindle Edition.
Thomas, Andrew. Spitfire Aces of Northwest Europe 1944-45 (Aircraft of the Aces).
Franks, Norman. Typhoon Attack: The Legendary British Fighter in Combat in World War II (Stackpole Military History Series).
Wikipedia article on late Merlin-power Spitfire variants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire_(late_Merlin-powered_variants) .
Wikipedia article on Ta 152. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Ta_152 .
Scenario design: Swareiam, Brooke, and Scenario community.
Game-day CM's: Brooke and Swareiam.
Allied CO: JunkyII
Axis CO: Vudu15
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, 1/10/2016
-- First draft. Changes
proposed from Red's initial:
-- Plan on ~40 people per side. That is in
line with last two 4-frame scenarios.
-- As a result, reduce number of groups
and number of types of aircraft.
-- Reduce combat area to get good
players/area.
-- Set scoring and object hardness so that average result of
use of bomber formation is est. zero taking into account prob. of loss of
bombers (so better than average is + points, less than average is - points, to
account for asymmetry of bombers). Give a little bit for bunkers so that
if a bomber pilot has only a single bomber left, can still destroy something.
Est. based on typical result being half the bombers die before target, half kill targets, and all die before making it home.
-- Reduce ack
lethality a little more.
-- Set hardness so that attack planes can kill about
1 bunker each.
v2, 1/12/2017
-- Corrected error in number of
aircraft.
-- Reduced ambiguity in wording in Victory Conditions.
--
Changed allied rear base (from a96 to a156, so that air spawns aren't possible).
v3, 1/12/2017
-- Made fighter groups have even
numbers.
-- Reduced auto ack lethality a smidge more.
-- Added references.
v4, 1/13/2017
-- Clarified who needs to be in
named groups -- everyone.
-- Added some available airfields.
-- Added
ability of side CM to open up new rear base for a side if all its fields are
capped.
v5, 1/14/2017
-- Added two Tempests and two Ta
152's.
-- Added Vudu15 as axis CO. Thank you, Vudu! <S>!
v6, 1/15/2017
-- Changed Spit IX to Spit XVI,
reason being that the Spit IX's used were LF IX's, which is about the same as
the Spit XVI.
-- Changed hardness of bunkers to 700 lbs (after offline
testing of attack runs in different aircraft).
-- Added the rest of the gun
types for setting down time to 8 minutes.
v7, 1/16/2017
-- Made JG 26 the D-9 group and JG
6 the G-14 group (instead of vice versa), and changed to K-4's from JG 3 to JG
53, because of prevalence of aircraft-type
mentions in the Bodenplatte reference.
-- Switch to using germany terrain, as
germanyw winter tiles are odd looking.
-- Put in dates and times.
v8, 1/20/2017
-- Giving axis two forward vbases
for front lines and to make radar coverage approximately equal side to side.
-- Converted a113 to axis control so that allied radar circle doesn't impinge as
much on area north of a116.
-- Upping radar radius from 20 to 30 miles for
better coverage by each side and because late-1944/1945 radar coverage was
extensive.
-- After number crunching on past scenarios, giving axis two more
109G-14's and reducing points per hangar from 6 to 4. fighter:fighter
ratio is now 30:28 = 1.07. bomber:fighter ratio is still 8:28 = 0.29,
which is low compared to historical 0.33-0.37 where bombers did OK, but am
assuming that some fighters go after ground attackers.
v9, 2/11/2017
-- Added awesome reference "To Win
the Winter Sky".
-- That reference has (pages 60-65) a list of all groups in
9th AF (and plane types), in 8th AF during the battle, and in 2nd TAF (and plane
types).
-- Most-prevalent Spitfire type is XVI.
-- Based on reference,
changing some group names to reflect correct plane types. Specifically:
125 Wing changed to 132 Wing (Spit 16's).
150 Wing (not
listed in table) changed to 122 Wing (Tempests).
354th FG
(used P-47's during this time) changed to 361st FG (P-51's).
v10, 3/19/2017
-- Added CommunicationFlags and
BomberWarningRange that were mistakenly left out of writeup but were used in
scenario.
-- Don't have cloud sets yet to vary clouds frame to frame.
Change description of clouds to what we used in scenario.
-- Modified motd to
what was used.