ISIS, Korea, World War III and Superbug epics: Fourteen new CMANO scenarios

July 16, 2015 · Posted in Command · Comment 

SSGNIt looks like Command’s scenario authors are crafting new exciting works even on the beach! Miguel Molina has posted a new revision of the community scenario pack, featuring fourteen new scenarios.

  • Saudi Arabia Crisis – Attack of IS, 2016: The IS terrorists control Yemen and part of Somalia and Saudi Arabia. Western forces are massing on Israel, Oman and Kuwait as a prelude to invasion of Saudi Arabia to counter the IS. But Iranian-backed elements within IS have one more card to play…
  • Battle of Yavin, 1980: A plucky, rag-tag, and surprisingly well armed band of rebels has identified a weakness in an Imperial battle station. You’re one of the pilots flying fighter cover for the attack. Good luck!
  • Benny’s Sweep, 1958: Pro-Communist rebels operating in the Philippines have seized control of part of the island of Luzon.  Worse, the rebels are receiving aid from the Soviet Union, which hopes to trigger a Vietnam-like civil war in the Philippines. The situation is intolerable to the United States, but at the moment other international obligations mean that the only forces available to assist the government of the Philippines is a small task force based around the aircraft carrier Bennington.
  • Kitty Comes To Kamchatka (The War That Never Was), 1989: Petropavlovsk is the only major Russian naval base that opens directly to the Pacific. That fact, plus its proximity to Alaska, made it a prime NATO target during the Cold War. This scenario, based upon the book by Michael A. Palmer, examines the ability of a single Carrier Task Force centered on the USS Kitty Hawk to attack and neutralize this important facility.
  • Meteors Over Korea, 1952: A fictional raid conducted by Australian forces against the port of Haeju during the Korean War. When Australian forces, flying Gloster Meteors, first encountered North Korean MiG-15s, they suffered significant losses.  Following this, the Meteor was used primarily as an attack aircraft rather than as an interceptor.  This scenario assumes that no other forces were available to assist the Australians during this mission and that, for this reason, the Meteors from No. 77 squadron were employed both as attack and as escort aircraft.
  • Northern Fury 6 – Keflavik Capers, 1994: War started Sunday and Keflavik was one of the first targets, a surprise missile attack which closed the two main runways and destroyed seven aircraft on the ground. You need time to reinforce and get the base onto a real war-footing. You must inflict damage and slow Soviet progress. Critical to success is the evacuation of non essential personnel and civilians.
  • Northern Fury 7 – Plug the Gap, 1994: Steaming North as the fourth day of a new global war opens, you are in command of the HMS Invincible Task Group, and are heading into harm’s way! Dawn yesterday saw an amphibious assault around Trondheim. It looks like the Norwegians with the able help of 3 Royal Marine Commando Bde are holding, but pressure from the north is forcing the Norwegian Army to collapse southwards. Narvik fell late yesterday afternoon. STANAVFORLANT is withdrawing in tatters with the remaining surface units of the Norwegian fleet – they are out of it for a bit. Reports from Iceland are vague but it appears that Spetsnaz forces have captured several out-ports and key radar installations have been knocked out. Critical to success is the transport of two parachute battalions to establish initial defences in the Shetland and Faroe Islands.
  • Northern Fury 8 – Hold the Line, 1994: You are the commander of the USS Enterprise CVBG, (CVN-65). Due to heightened tensions, your refit/re-fueling was rushed through and completed 8 months ahead of schedule. On the 12th of Feb, while completing your workup trials off of Puerto Rico, you were sent a FLASH message to precede north at best possible speed. Just before midnight last night you received a warning order from CINCLANT informing you of some late developments – including the fall of Iceland. Your orders were to position the TG north east of Newfoundland and prepare for heavy engagement.
  • Phoenix of Indochina, 1949: The Japanese ship Hosho was a vital pioneer in naval aviation, being the first ship built as an aircraft carrier. Miraculously surviving World War II, she was historically converted to a transport and then scrapped. In this scenario, the Hosho was given to France as a war prize, and her new owners, faced with a war in Indochina, have wasted no time in putting her to use. Here the Hosho (renamed in a new language that keeps the original meaning) now fights over Haiphong.
  • Russian Civil War (Jane’s F/A-18) – Phase I, 2004: Due to severe economic downturns and the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the political and military leadership in Russia has splintered into two discrete factions. The result of these divisions is an armed civil conflict. The political and security interests of NATO members and the western world preclude a return to Soviet-era leadership in post-Soviet Russia. In response to this threat, and to a request for assistance by ‘Blue Russian’ forces, NATO and the United States NCA have dispatched the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group to the waters north of the Kola Peninusula. Although overt hostilities have not yet begun against ‘Red Russian’ forces, they are imminent.
  • Russian Civil War (Jane’s F/A-18) – Phase II, 2004: During Phase I of the campaign the Reagan Strike Group conducted a systematic attrition of Red Russian air assets and integrated counter-air defenses on the Kola Peninsula. In Phase II, the strike group will perform the function for which it was deployed here: to prevent rebel forces from obtaining and using WMDs or their delivery vehicles.
  • Russian Civil War (Jane’s F/A-18) – Phase III, 2004: The USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group was deployed to the waters north of the Kola Peninusula to defeat the threat of Red Russian forces obtaining WMD’s and their delivery vehicles. During the first two phases of the operation, the strike group rolled back Red Russian integrated air defenses on the Kola Peninsula and conducted operations to destroy and/or deny various WMD assets to Red Russian forces. With Blue Russian forces obtaining the upper hand and rapidly moving north, the strike group intends to accelerate the Red Russian collapse by attacking their logistics lines and forces from the rear, coupled with an amphibious raid by the USMC in order to further demoralize the rebel leadership and perhaps draw forces away from the Blue Russian advance.
  • Uncle Mark’s Tutorials #1 – NATO Surface Group vs. Soviet, 1985: World War III has started in 1985, and you are in charge of a small surface action group (SAG).  Your job is to hunt Soviet ships and submarines and destroy them before they can get out into the Atlantic ocean, where they could threaten NATO convoys. Your forces consist of three warships–a British destroyer, a Dutch frigate, and a German frigate.  You also have three helicopters for scouting the seas ahead of your ships and for hunting submarines.
  • Uncle Mark’s Tutorials #2 – English Jets over Uganda, 1973: In 1972, Idi Amin broke diplomatic relations with the UK and nationalized several British companies operating in Uganda.  This scenario assumes that following this a series of incidents have led to increased hostilities between Uganda and the UK.  The UK has decided that a show of force is necessary. Kenya has provided the UK with access to one of its air bases. You are in command of a strike force formed from detachments from a number of RAF squadrons.  You have three basic missions.  You are to first cripple the Ugandan air force in the sky and gain air superiority.  You are also to fly reconnaissance missions over Entebbe.  Finally, you are to conduct air strikes against selected ground targets.

All new scenarios use the v438 versions of the DB3000 and CWDB databases, which are included in the v1.08 upgrade just released.

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

With the new additions, the number of total released scenarios now stands at 275!

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Marching forward: Command v1.08 now available

July 14, 2015 · Posted in Command · Comment 

F35CIt’s been four months since v1.07, and we’ve been busy as always. After a lengthy public release candidate phase, Command v1.08 is now officially available. Full 20-page changelog is here.

Some of the highlights of the new free update:

* New toys to try out: Anti-torpedo torpedoes and related torpedo-warning systems, new warhead types such as “superfrags”, new weapon types such as “Contact explosive” (for the discerning saboteur or suicide terrorist), a brand-new ship type (Mobile Offshore Base (aka “Battle Island”)), and more.

* User interface enhancements: Players can now observe the engagement arcs of a unit mount, permission-dependent color of targeting vectors, coastline/border fade-out on zoom (as in GE), the manual weapon allocation window can present to the player the “soft” restrictions (WRA/WCS/other doctrine settings), various tweaks to mission editor UI. etc.

* Simulation improvements: Major speed boost on large scenarios, more accurate uncertainty areas for long-range passive detections (SOSUS, ESM etc.), reliable sub battery recharge, improved sub-captain AI on chasing after unreachable targets, snap-up/down limits for AAW guided weapons, side-firing gunships (e.g. AC-130) now manouvering properly, more realistic UNREP transfer rates, speed-dependent aircraft IR signatures (that supercruise may now really cost you if the enemy has decent IRSTs), tweaks to damage modelling related to light-caliber automatic weapons, realistic “no scan while painting” limitation on older mechanical radars, and more.

* Scenario Editor improvements: “Can Auto-track civilians” side-level ability, Lua speed enhancements and more.

* Updated & rebuilt versions of all official scenarios, plus a new scenario addition to the official-bundled scenarios (Pyrpolitis 1-14, from the community scenario pack).

* A brand-new series of tutorial videos by Baloogan.

Plus of course a massive list of fixes, small tweaks and database additions for both the DB3000 and CWDB as you have come to expect from the tireless content creators of the WS crew.

And the best is yet to come…

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BAE Systems signs agreement to use Command

July 1, 2015 · Posted in Command PE · 1 Comment 

BAE2

It is now official. BAE Systems is using Command for professional purposes.

A crucial appreciation of these efforts is now coming from experts at defense, security and aerospace multinational BAE Systems. In particular, real time wargame Command: Modern Air/Naval Operationshas been chosen to start a collaboration with Slitherine and its development partners.

News of this deal was first circulated during the HoW-15 opening address, and since then we have received a lot of questions on the details of the deal. Naturally there is a limit to what we can divulge due to the sensitive nature of the defense sector, but we can say that BAE’s end users have been delighted with their experience on using Command for their needs and are looking forward to making the most of it with the cooperation of the WarfareSims staff.

Command has been recently been made available officially for professional use, and a collaboration with a top-tier defense contractor right out of the gate further strengthens the simulation’s position in the demanding professional gaming & analysis arena.

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