Missions and scenarios for WWIII

An interesting (but good) problem with designing missions and scenarios for WWIII is that it never took place. That means we don’t have any famous battles to recreate, no real knowledge of how the opponents compared and no true test of the various doctrines and tactics.

As a player, I enjoy the realistic feel of a battle. What would the flow of actions have been? What problems would have arisen from use of available equipment, tactics and the situations the soldiers typically found themselves in?

The BG system is, in my opinion, best used on small skirmishes of platoon level. It can be fun to try lager battles, but it takes a lot of time and can become a bit unwieldy. To me, that means that the big brigade-size tank battles in the Fulda-gap is a bit too much. We need to zoom in and focus on other smaller encounters, edges of larger battlefields, commando-raids etc.

Another issue is the asymmetrical nature of the two opposing forces. Sure, WWII also had big differences between how Germans, Soviets and Americans fought – but I feel the difference would have been much bigger in a WWIII.  

Pact forces is all about going west, at fast as possible and being willing to pay a big price in men and material. In addition, pact doctrine underlines the need to operate in depth – with air landings, commando raids and all manners of subterfuge.

NATO doctrine is a flexible, mobile defense that trades land for time and seeks to preserve your own high quality forces as long as possible.


So, with all that said, here is a list of missions I feel would be FUN, realistic for the setting and the system and what special game-mechanisms I feel would be needed. Inspiration is from real-life time-appropriated learning materials, books and movies. The list is an inspiration, in-progress and a starting point for criticism and debate 

Sabotage!

First clash

Demolition Guard

Counter Attack

Recon and counter-recon

Shaping the Battle

Air Assault!

SAS/Spetnatz raid

Fording the river

Ambushed by the Home Guard

Delaying Action

Context: In the first hours of WWIII, thousands of PACT Special Forces would have attacked key installations behind NATO lines. Civilian infrastructure and key personnel as well as military installations and units. It was hoped by NATO that some warning, preferably in days, would have been had from intelligence. Police and security forces, some by regular military units, would have guarded important installations.

How it should feel: Small and elite PACT units, completely unsupported must take an objective and then preferably get away.  NATO will have a few low-grade units on or near the objective – but more in reserve as a QRF. Can NATO protect the objective? Will the QRF show up in time? Will they catch the attackers before they disappear? Platoon-sized game.

Force selection: Pact can only select units with the “Behind Enemy Lines” keyword – and is not required to select anything else. They can however select a civilian van as transport.
NATO can only have units with “Rear Area Security” on the table at the beginning, but can have anything else they like in reserve.

Deployment: An objective is placed in the center of the table. NATO deploys all units first anywhere they like. PACT deploys afterwards anywhere they like, but not within x cm of the objective (20 cm?).  

Winning and losing: The side to first reach its BR loses. If PACT have an unpinned unit on the objective for one full round, then the objective is destroyed – NATO must draw 1D6 tokens (2d6? Or should it be a fixed BR?).  For each unit of PACT forces that reach the table edge after the objective is destroyed, NATO draws a token. If all PACT units have left the table and the objective is destroyed, NATO loses.

Hi KplRavn

Whilst I think you can actually play larger games with these rules quite easily (we've played games with a UK Company sized battlegroup versus a full Battalion of Soviets across two tables) I agree that it works very well in some smaller sized games as well.

I think you've got a pretty decent list there of scenarios, quite a few of which we've played out at some point or other.

Interestingly, I just watched an old BAOR youtube video called "The Demolition Guard" yesterday. It showed it's not necessarily a small skirmish game. The Brits defending the bridge had four platoons of infantry, a Chieftain tank troop, 4 CVR(T)s, 2 Blowpipe Teams, an HQ unit and engineers. Over the course of the video they deal with sabotage, a couple of air raids, artillery strikes, a near by helo assault, divers and eventually the full Soviet attack. To me that sounds like an awesome game!

Richard

"The Demolition Guard" is an absolute classic! For some reason I find the old school British military education videos from this period very fascinating . Other favorites are:

Sappers in war
Fighting in Woods

and there is some very good german ones too- on the Bundeswehr youtube channel: Its called “Classix” and they have 200+ films .

Anyway, I agree that company-level battles are not that difficult to play – but it takes time and a bit of preparation. A UK company vs a Soviet bat. sounds like great fun, but must have taken quiet a long time. If times permit, I can write a version 0.1 set of general missions based on my list, and make a suggestion for a scenario with forces for each?

Hi KplRavn

Happy for you to have a crack at some scenario design if you would like to. Put it up here for others to have a look at.

Richard