Air Traffic Control report snipetts:

0400, “ATC Kassel reporting, heavy count of signatures headed westbound and now in West German airspace. Scramble to intercept”

ATC Hamelin, “Hawk battteries 3,5, and 12 you are weapons free, fire at will, OMG, there are dozens of planes.”

ATC Hamburg, ” scramble all available F15C’s, Polish, East German and Soviet signatures are screaming towards border. Hawk batteries open fire, shoot straight for f#$k sake!”
“Shit… get command on the line, this is worse than we thought.”

Game Mechanics aside:

“A” rated flak units [usually fixed in place] look at the 2^nd number on the air squadrons, for example the Mig 23M is rated an 8 for its evasion. We check that number on the Evasion modifiers table and see that they earn a +4 DRM on the Flak Fire Table! Pretty nice against a d20 roll.

But with A rated Flak, there is a 95% chance you are getting hit. All well and good until the battle passes you by or you are overrun. This in the end means that nearly every unit shot at you needs a 15 or a 16 to avoid any losses!

The big advantage to the Soviets is the high quality and quantity of the B rated Flak that hits 85% of the time on a raw roll, but this is mitigated by the +3,4,or 5 DRM roll which really brings the risk down to just 50%….sigh. 50%…”) Wow!

Tactics:

I put a lot air fighters up in the Kassel zone as well as the AWACS. The Hamelin zone has lightest coverage and the North the best air I can get. I’m trying to get some early wins there and I’ll explain why below.

As you can see here, we have a lot of air allocated to zone 7 which covers the area from Hamburg south to the Aller river. If as I suspect the Soviets will hit the soft under belly hardest then we need air superiority to support the ground troops.

More Game Mechanics

I was looking at the deltas between my attack and his evasion. Significant! 😉, so as long as we don’t succumb to numerical drms due to AWACS or 2:1 or better Fighter  step ratios we can hold our own AFTER Flak! 🙂

Lets look at some typical likely combats then we can see how over confident I was, because hey – VASSAL die roller!!

A 13 rated F15 C (13-10-3) is going to go up against say Mig23MLA (10-8-2), One of the tricky parts in resolving the air war part of this segment is where you place the best units to sit on the AS Combat track relative to the enemies.

Each side lays out the units on the track in boxes from 1-15 hidden from the other player. Each side reveals simultaneously. So, if we match up F15C vs Mig23 (each side best fighters [well Soviets do have a few 11-8-2’s] let us see how a combat might turn out:

Air Combat

13 attack – 8 evasion = 5 column. DRMS:+/- Pilot ratings US 3-SU 2 = +1 DRM.

We would also modify for AWACS if both were in the same location – another +1 for US. If the Soviets had numeric superiority they would obtain a -2 benefit [not relevant here in Zone 7].

Thus combat for the US would be resolved on the max column on the table; +4, with a +2 net DRM.

On an average roll of 10 or 11 [12.50% or 25% chance cumulative] the US will inflict 1/1/a result [step, damage & abort]. He will ALWAYS abort his enemy, he has a 75% chance of inflicting a step loss!

Simultaneously the Soviets fight back:

10 attack – 11 evasion = -1 column on results table. DRMS: +/- Pilot ratings SU 2- US 3 = -1 DRM.

AWACS would provide another -1. For a net -3 on the -1 Column.

With an average roll of 10, or 11 the result is: No Effect. 

That is a huge difference between the two fighting forces. So it in a way mitigates the massive effect of the Flak. Indeed with evasion, the Flak is not as bad as we likely think, or is it?

Each group 1-15 run this cycle. Then if there are NO units left on the track the guy with dudes left has Superiority. IF there ARE units left we go thru another round of air combat and privately place units on the track 1-15 again.

-END mechanics side bar

Back to the Battle –

Missiles streak thru the air, Soviet craft deploy counter measures, and the overwhelming volume of aircraft begin to allow the enemy to slip thru. Missiles scream through the sky at Mig 23’s and even Su 24’s. with an effective ceiling of 65000 feet or 20,000m the Hawks start taking down Migs aggressively up to 35 kms out. PAR radar was almost overwhelmed with the volume of targets, and the high altitude of the forces, as the missile storms slacken the F-15’s engage.

‘Fox 53 engaging multiple bogeys, ..damn they are everywhere target the Floggers 1st!’

Vulcan guns spool up, AIM-9 & Sparrow missiles locked on targets, and the twin tailed Eagles thrust themselves into battle! Each pilot heads up display[HUD] provided detailed tactical input and flight data from TACAN systems boosted the men’s confidence that not only were they the best trained but the best equipped combat aircraft pilots in the world. Perhaps they were in for a surprise as the upgraded Mig23’s pressed themselves into the fight with equal zeal.

The First Air Sortie up next.