The scenarios of Northern Inferno

October 20, 2015 · Posted in Command, Northern Inferno · Comment

As you probably know by now, Northern Inferno is coming this Thursday as part of the massive v1.09 update. The first DLC pack for Command, NI is also important as its standalone nature allows players to purchase and enjoy it regardless of whether they already own CMANO or not.

Let’s peruse the 15 scenarios that comprise this epic WW3 campaign. Each scenario can be played either as part of the campaign (in which case reaching a certain “pass score” is necessary in order to advance to the next scenario) or in standalone mode like all other CMANO scenarios.

Here is the list:

Opening Moves: Soviet submarines are rushing across the Norwegian Sea, heading for the Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) gap, doorway to the Atlantic. NATO naval forces mobilize to stem the tide.

Goblin on the doorstep: Amidst the growing crisis, the British strategic nuclear submarine HMS Revenge is putting out to sea. Soviet strategic doctrine dictates targeting and destroying these invaluable assets as soon as possible during a crisis or war. It’s a long way out to the safety of deep water…

The Fast and the Furious: The war is spreading. A powerful Soviet amphibious force is heading towards northern Norway, screened by multiple squadrons of missile fast-attack craft. With the bulk of NATO’s Atlantic forces already committed elsewhere, what can Norway do to blunt the invasion?

Barents Sea Boomers: After absorbing punch after punch, NATO swings to the offensive by applying one of the key tenets of the 1980’s Maritime Strategy: Hunt down and attempt to sink the Soviet strategic submarines (SSBNs) inside their protective bastions.

Beware of the Badger: Norway has been invaded. The US and UK are rushing heavy amphibious forces to support the bulwark in the north. But the Soviet Naval Aviation’s missile-armed bombers roam over the Norwegian Sea. Will enough reinforcements reach Norway to matter?

The Grey Ghost from the East Coast: Taking a page out of the WW2 Kriegsmarine playbook, the Soviet Navy is sending its Sverdlov heavy cruisers down the Denmark strait, bypassing the battered Icelandic defences, in hopes of further straining NATO’s overburdened Atlantic screen. Standing in their way is a USN surface group centered around the Newport News, the US Navy’s last heavy-gun cruiser. Can the “Grey Ghost” and her cohorts crash the Sverdlov raiding party?

The Mighty O: Iceland has been heavily bombarded and then seized by Soviet forces. Soon, Soviet naval bombers will be able to operate from the polar island’s airbases, striking at will all over the Atlantic. For NATO, this is unacceptable – and the carrier Oriskany will spearhead the operation to shut Iceland down.

Damn The Torpedoes: A large, vital NATO convoy is approaching Europe with cargo and container ships as well as oil tankers. The Soviet Union has warned NATO that any further overseas reinforcement of Europe “will dramatically escalate the situation”. The Red Banner Fleet’s submarine force is gunning for the convoy en masse. How many will survive to reach the French coast?

Fox Two: The Soviet bomber force is down for maintenance and re-arming, preparing for a big raid, and NATO intel suggests that the British Isles, so far unscathed from the carnage in continental Europe, are on the top of the target list. The Royal Air Force (RAF) is withdrawing from Norway and consolidating to protect the UK mainland. What will be the price of protecting the Crown?

An Eye for an Eye: RAF bases have been hit with nuclear weapons. NATO does not want to escalate to all-out nuclear war, but Britain must respond in kind. The Ark Royal carrier group and its Buccaneer low-level strike aircraft will strike at the heart of Soviet Naval Aviation.

Fire and Brimstone: The Saratoga and JFK carrier groups are tied down off the coast of Norway, supporting a desperate NATO holding action against advancing Soviet armor. This makes them perfect targets for Soviet missile bombers. Tactical nuclear weapons release has been granted. The all-out “bombers vs. carriers” battle that both sides have been rehearsing for over 20 years is about to explode.

Hunter or Hunted: Both sides in the massive conflict are beginning to show signs of exhaustion. NATO carrier groups have been heavily damaged and forced to withdraw towards the GIUK gap, leaving subs and aircraft as the primary offensive assets. To bolster its own battered surface forces, the Soviet Navy is hurriedly commissioning and putting to sea the Kiev, its first real aircraft carrier. A trio of NATO nuclear submarines are hastily assembled to form the welcoming committee.

Deliverance: The Soviet occupation of Iceland has been a constant problem for NATO planners. Soviet forces on the island have been repeatedly harassed but never truly neutralized. NATO now feels confident enough to seriously attempt to seize control of the island back. Multiple carrier groups and support forces, including the amphibious-modified USS Iowa, are converging on Iceland. But the Soviets will not hand over their most important outpost without a fight.

Needle in a Hay Stack: BothSoviet and NATO strategic nuclear forces are being brought to a high state of readiness. The United States is now at DEFCON 2. Peace talks are at a stalemate after an attempted assassination on the US ambassador in Geneva. Unidentified submarines have been sighted off the coast of Nova Scotia. If Soviet submarines can roam in these waters, the US will be under constant threat of a sudden decapitation nuclear strike.

Fail Safe: Amidst a terrible nuclear crisis, multiple cells of SAC B-52 bombers, armed with nuclear weapons, are reaching their “point of no return” locations over the Artic circle. Soviet strategic forces and air defences alike are in the highest alert level. Fingers rest on nuclear triggers. Can global thermonuclear war be averted?

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WW3 duels, Thud Ridge, COIN raids and Donetsk Airport: Ten new CMANO scenarios available

October 3, 2015 · Posted in Command · Comment

Miguel Molina has posted a new revision of the community scenario pack, the compendium of Command scenarios crafted by the user community. The new release contains ten brand-new scenarios:

Attack Sub Duel Off Hokkaido, 2003: This scenario assumes that tensions have increased between Japan and Russia. Japanese Coast Guard vessels have fired on Russian fishing boats that have strayed into Japanese territorial waters. Russia has threatened to attack Japanese shipping in retaliation. The submarine Harushio has been ordered to support a surface group transiting to Nagasaki. Russian attacks are highly likely.
First Battle of Donetsk Airport, 2014: On May 16, 2014 the Ukrainian government started an anti-terrorist operation against pro-Russian insurgents in the Donetsk Oblast in early April 2014. Pro-Russian protesters and insurgents affiliated with the DPR captured and occupied numerous government buildings, towns, and territories in the region. In Donetsk city itself, many government buildings were under separatist control. During the morning of May 26, pro-Russian insurgents captured the terminal buildings of Donetsk International Airport, and demanded the withdrawal of government forces from the area. Soon after, Ukraine issued an ultimatum to the insurgents, demanding they surrender immediately. This was rejected, causing paratroopers to launch an assault on the airport, accompanied by airstrikes against insurgent positions.
Here, There And Everywhere, 1965: On July 24, 1965 an F-4C flying CAP over North Vietnam was shot down by a Russian-supplied SA-2 missile. This was the first attack by SAMs on US aircraft and the shootdown took Washington by surprise. A reprisal raid was decided. On July 27 a large raid of F-105s was launched against the sites and nearby barracks where the SAM crews were living. The costliest yet day of the Vietnam air war was about to unroll.
Northern Fury #9.1 – Eisenhower Moves North, 1994: Entering the sixth day of WW3, the situation in the North Atlantic remains desperate. The rapid capture of North Norway and Iceland have allowed the Soviets to surge almost 100 submarines into the Atlantic. The Enterprise CVBG spent two difficult days blunting an attempt by the Red Banner Northern Fleet to interdict the sea lanes, she is now retiring, as are the major Soviet surface units, to replenish. Now, as Enterprise steams south, the USS Eisenhower, after three days of hard fighting in the Mediterranean, has passed through the pillars of Hercules and is heading north. She and the Carl Vinson CVBG will strike at Soviet forces around Iceland three days from now.
Northern Fury #3 – Dagger To The Heart, 1994: A quiet Sunday morning in New York Harbour, it’s cold and windy and the main topic of conversation at the Sandy Hook, New Jersey Coast Guard Station is the ongoing fiasco at the Olympics…
Scenario Editor Tutorial – Adding Weapons, 2015: Unlike other Command scenarios, this is intended to be played in scenario-editor mode. In this scenario, the player will add aircraft to an airfield, arm the aircraft, and then shoot down an easy target.
Uncle Mark’s Tutorials #4 – Boston Guards the Denmark Strait, 1985: Hostilities have broken out in Europe. The war is only a few days old, but there has been limited use of chemical and tactical nuclear weapons, and American vessels have been cleared to use nuclear depth charges against enemy submarines. You are in command of the American nuclear attack submarine Boston. You have been assigned to patrol the Denmark Strait, which lies between Iceland and Greenland. Controlling the Denmark Strait would be vital in any conflict between NATO and the Soviet Union (or, today, Russia) as it connects the Norwegian Sea with the rest of the Atlantic Ocean.
Uncle Mark’s Tutorials #5 – Motozintla Incursion, 2015: Existing tensions between Mexico and Guatemala have increased in recent months. Matters came to a head when Mexican forces fired on a Guatemalan fishing boat that had strayed into Mexico’s territorial waters. Accounts of the attack vary, but it appears that the fishing boat had initially refused to surrender to Mexican forces and had attempted to flee back into international waters. However, many believe the level of force used by Mexico was excessive. With Mexico’s military already spread thin trying to keep the drug cartels under control, there is concern that Guatemala will launch some kind of punitive expedition. This scenario is designed to give players practice with air power vs. ground forces situations, on a low-intensity conflict.
Waller Takes Charge, 1955: Hostilities erupted between NATO and the Soviet Union in 1955. The war is less than one day old, and both sides have taken terrific losses in the Mediterranean. It falls to the American destroyer Waller and forces attached to her to seize control of the waters south of Crete.
War of the Thirty-Fives, 2021: The Kurds have finally secured independence, and a windfall of now-rising oil prices and the investment opportunities that have come with formal recognition have allowed their (not entirely unjustifiably) paranoid leaders to embark on the kind of military overbuildup that has not been seen for a while. Among this buildup is a new air force, built from the ground up. With Western purchases coming with far too many strings attached, they have obtained a massive number of the most advanced Fulcrum variant, the MiG-35. Unfortunately, the Kurdish political problem has continued in Turkey, with emboldened Kurdish fighters in that country’s east increasingly using their neighbor as a sanctuary. Clashes are an unfortunate routine. Now Ankara seeks to break the stalemate by using their finally-ready fifth generation stealth F-35s. But stealth or not, superior technology or not, the Kurdish government is prepared to defend its territorial integrity….

Some of the above scenarios use the most recent version (v440) of the Command databases, which are included with the v1.09 RC11 (B746) update. We therefore recommend downloading and applying this update before using the new scenarios. Alternatively, players can hold for the official release of the v1.09 update which is approaching fast.

As always, the community scenario pack is available for download at the WarfareSims download section: http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=1876

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Northern Inferno is coming!

September 18, 2015 · Posted in Command · Comment

Yes, that’s what we held back 🙂

So now it’s official. Northern Inferno, the first DLC release for Command, has been announced by MatrixGames. It will be part of the v1.09 update and will also be bundled with the full-pack installer for new customers.

NI is a milestone release for a number of reasons. On its own, it’s a storyline campaign of 15 scenarios created by Paul Bridge, a member of WarfareSims and Royal Navy officer (and Falklands veteran). We are thrilled with the campaign story and trust our existing users and new players alike will enjoy it as much as we did during testing.

Equally important, NI is an excellent opportunity for new players to try out Command, as it can be purchased and played as a standalone game at a fraction of the price of the full CMANO game. So the argument “this looks really interesting, but is too expensive for me to try” is now officially dead (if Steam refunds haven’t killed it already).

Stay tuned for more updates on this epic release!

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Speed, features and nuclear EMPs: CMANO v1.09 Release Candidate now available

September 1, 2015 · Posted in Command · Comment

EMP It’s only been 45 days since the release of the v1.08 update, but our legions of fans are used to our rapid pace of improvement so the time has come to test-drive the next major release. v1.09 RC1 is now available for download from the MatrixGames forums, click here for download link and detailed release notes.

So what’s new? Among other stuff:

Nuclear EMP: Nuclear detonations now generate a proper electromagnetic pulse which can really fry sensors in the vicinity – or really far away. The magnitude and radius of the effect vary with detonation altitude and realistically affect different sensor tech generations (wonder why the Russians still like vacuum tubes?).
New UI/Map features like optional map placenames and the ability to display either all detected contact emissions or only those that are fire control-related.
Massive speed improvements on large, complex scenarios.
New Lua scripting functions like “Add Explosion” (we’ll let the imaginations of scen authors run wild with this…) and “Change Unit Side”.
Three new tutorial scenarios, from Mark Gellis’ popular “Uncle Mark’s Tutorials” series.
Plus a host of tweaks, fixes and additions as always based directly on user feedback.

The biggest new feature of v1.09 is the one we cannot talk about just yet…. but give it a few days.

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Terrorist attacks, WW3 convoys, Saudi onslaught and Hormuz campaigns: Twelve new Command scenarios available

August 8, 2015 · Posted in Command · Comment

Miguel Molina has posted a new revision of the community scenario pack, the compendium of Command scenarios crafted by the user community. The new release contains twelve brand-new scenarios:

WEC Davos Attacked by Terrorists, 2016: The World Economic Forum (WEC) is hosted every year in Davos, Switzerland, and attended by numerous political, diplomatic and industry leaders. This year, anonymous threats of a terrorist attack on the event have prompted heavier-than-usual security measures by the local authorities, including the Swiss police and army as well as support by Austrian and NATO air forces.
Black Tiger I, 2015: The last remnants of USMC Afghanistan veterans are returning to CONUS and transiting the straits of Hormuz, along with the Carl Vinson CSG. But a covertly Russia-backed Iran is determined not to allow safe passage.
Black Tiger II, 2015: Earlier today, a section of Superhornets was forced to intercept and drive off Iranian MiGs that flew out over Gulf waters to harrass and ‘thump’ a maritime patrol plane. As the excitement of the morning fades and night falls, there are growing indications that fresh trouble may be brewing…
Black Tiger III, 2015: In the past two days, several incidents have increased tensions to the boiling point. Iranian fighters have harrassed U.S. maritime patrol aircraft and flown aggressively in the airspace surrounding the two naval groups. Even worse, several missile-armed gunboats fought a surface action against the 5th Fleet on the night of February 6th. Although Iran claims that the boats were manned by Al Quaeda insurgents and that they had nothing to do with the incident, intelligence sources believe the craft involved were actually Iranian naval units flying under false colors, and the diplomatic fallout hasn’t stopped yet. This afternoon, Carrier Strike Group 3 will stand on station just west of the Strait of Hormuz, watching tensely as the Tarawa group makes the transit.
Black Tiger IV, 2015: In the past two days, several incidents have increased tensions to the boiling point. Today the USS Carl Vinson and her escorts plan to transit the strait behind their amphibious group, but they have no idea the horror that awaits them. For decades, it has been nothing more than a respect for the strength of the United States that has kept the Strait of Hormuz open to the world. With Iran on the brink of becoming a nuclear power and with the windfall of top line military equipment they have obtained, the time has come for the regional balance of power to shift decisively. The Iranians are planning to hand the United States Navy the most crushing defeat it has ever seen, seize control of the Persian Gulf – and hold it.
Black Tiger V, 2015: Bolstered by a new secret alliance with Russia and the influx of a wealth of modern aircraft and weapons systems, the Iranians have executed their plans to become a nuclear power and seize permanent control of the Persian Gulf region. A surprise attack on US ships transiting the Hormuz has resulted in heavy casualties and effective blocking of the straits. Iran capitalyzed on the ensuing confusion and temporary paralysis to successfully test its first nuclear weapon and declare itself a nuclear power. Now the U.S. Navy plans to carry out an operation to re-open the straits and restore freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf. For this operation, a couple of USN late Cold War projects, the F-14E Tomcat 21 and the AIM-152A AAAM missile (the replacement for the Phoenix) are coming out of the mothballs.
Trans-Atlantic Convoy Duty, 1985: WWIII has broken out in Europe with the classic Soviet thrust through the Fulda Gap. Unfortunately, the Soviets have also managed to take Iceland, taking effective control of the GIUK gap and leaving the northern convoy routes exposed and vulnerable. Defend the convoy and your battle group from Soviet attack.
Facing the Bear (The War That Never Was), 1989: Northern Norway may have been the most important theater in the world if the Cold War ever went hot. US reinforcements had to be shipped across the Atlantic in convoys of slow transports vulnerable to Soviet submarines and long-range naval aviation assets. The outcomes of the titanic battles in Germany were completely dependent upon a much smaller battle that would have unfolded in a sparsely-populated, harsh Nordic environment. This scenario, playable from the Soviet side, tries to capture the first stage of that battle.
Comte De Grasse’s Squadron, 1988: World War III has broken out. Limited-scale chemical and tactical-nuclear exchanges have been performed, but so far confined strictly to the Central Front and at sea. During these first few critical days of the war, one of the goals of the American navy is to secure the vital sea lanes of the Atlantic so that convoys will be able to resupply NATO forces in the coming weeks. As part of this effort, a task force centered around the American destroyer Comte de Grasse has been assigned to patrol the waters near the Azores.
Uncle Mark’s Tutorials #3 – Yorktown in the Gulf of Sidra, 1985: Libya has long made the claim that the entire Gulf of Sidra is its territorial waters, as opposed to the normal 12-mile limit prescribed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The US is sending a message by deliberately moving its ships through what the rest of the world considers international waters. This time the Aegis cruiser Yorktown, damaged from a recent explosion but still battle-worthy, has drawn the lot.
Kingdom Come, 2018: Following an abortive assassination attempt on the King of Saudi Arabia, compelling links between the assassins and the Egyptian national intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat, quickly came to light. In the ensuing furor, diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis between the two countries failed as each side dug in their heels. The Saudis would tolerate nothing less than having the responsible parties delivered to them immediately, while the Egyptians were still reeling from the realization that the Mukhabarat had initiated such an outrage without official sanction – but to save face would not admit so. With only hours to go before the deadline of the Saudi’s ultimatum, the Egyptians came to the conclusion, under the circumstances, that war was the more tenable option. The Kingdom would oblige.
Sinking A Battlewagon, 1990: With the construction of the Kirov-class battlecruisers, the US Navy once again faces armored, large enemy combatants. This experiment, with an Iowa as the target, tests the effectiveness of submarine weapons against such targets.