Unbelievable as it may be, this year I actually came prepare with a functional tournament structure, a fair scoring system and a full set of pre-thought scenarios! On top of that mix in the largest and best ever crowd of Air Superiority enthusiasts ever gathered in one spot and; "wallah!" -- a successful and most enjoyable day is had by all! The only problem encountered was that I didn't have enough slots for everyone that wanted to play.
Since this was the first year we were attempting a full scale Air Strike Tournament, I hadn't expect a large showing. I planned the scenarios based on having about 18 participants with the capability to expand to 24. As it were, 29 showed and though I tried to accommodate the extras, it just didn't work so the five adds ended up dropping out or filling in during later rounds for the few who packed it in early. Unfortunately, since they didn't play in every round they could not score competitively with those who did. Hopefully they still enjoyed themselves.
IRAQ BASHING
THEME
(of course)
The Strike Tourney consisted of two scenarios representing typical Desert Storm Strikes with one important exception, the Iraqi defenses were assumed to be competent; unlike the real ones. One scenario involved striking at targets in a small city, and the other involved attacking a major airfield. There would be three rounds of play and during the tourney each player would be involved in attacking the city, attacking the airfield and acting as the Iraqi defenders for either the city or the airfield. Unfortunately, I will not be able to present the actual scenarios used in this write up because we did not use the Air Strike game maps.
For an added sense of realism, play was instead conducted on actual geographic terrain maps of 1/24,000 scale. The terrain maps were covered by Chessex brand clear plastic vinyl game mats imprinted with a 25mm hexgrid. This created almost exactly the right terrain/distance relationship needed to match the Air Sup. scale of play. I used an actual military map of Iraq to present the general scenario briefing and to indicate to the players a small city on the Tigris river which served as a major railway and road junction on the Baghdad-Jordan highway, and a major military airfield to the South of that as the day's targets.
The 1/24,000 scale maps which I obtained to simulate these Iraqi targets, were Iowa State Geographic Survey maps of the town of Waterloo Iowa, which is situated on a large river, and of the Sioux City, Iowa airport. The neat thing about these maps is that key buildings such as warehouses, government offices, or aircraft hangars and the like are clearly and seperately depicted. Full details of highways, railroads, runways, bridges, oil tank farms and other military significant items are easily discernable as well. In all, using these maps proved quite interesting and helped give a feel for flying over real targets. The flat terrain of Iowa easily simulated the deserts of Iraq. I believe that I may try these kind of maps again in the future.
EMPHASIS ON TEAMWORK AND MISSION ACCOMPLISHMENT!
Successful air strikes depend heavily on good teamwork. To emphasize this, players were divided into two man teams which stayed together throughout the tourney. There were four tables to play at; two for airfield attacks, and two for city attacks.
During each round one terrain would defend a table and two teams (four players) would attack. At each table one of the attacking teams always had the role of either strike or defense suppression. If a team acted as defense suppression in one scenario, they would be a striker in the other. The scoring system took into account teamwork as well as individual effort as follows. By having two scenarios, and three rounds of play, there would be a total of six games of each scenario played.
Each attacking force was rated in how well they did compared to the other attacking forces playing the same scenario. The best played force was awarded six points with the next best getting five and so on. The worst performing attack force thus rated only one point. These points were given as team points to each player on that force. Thus helping your team do well was important even if you were hit early and your individual performance was not so keen.
Individually, players on the attack were rated in how well they performed their assigned mission compared to the others in their own attack force. Strike pilots were expected to put ordnance on target; suppressors to put ordnance on enemy defenses. A striker that killed a NG or a SAM but failed to get his bombs on target placed behind one who simply hit his assigned target with no other heroics involved. Of course heroics helped the team effort but the pilot's mission factored in as well. As there were four attackers, the best player would get four points and the worst player only one. This was added to their team score in each round.
PLAY BALANCE
The Scenarios did not favor the Iraqi's as they were designed to let those wonderful western aircraft trounce all over the enemy's defense systems provided correct tactics were used. As such, individual performance by the defenders mattered not and a score was not kept. However, each defensive team was rated against how the other teams on the same table performed with regards to protecting the targets. Defense system losses caused no penalties, thus all the Iraqi stuff was expendable. This point was not grasped by all the teams.
Play balance did not matter in the scenarios due to the comparative scoring system employed. However, that does not mean the Iraqi's were pushovers. In fact, in a few cases they were quite effective as will be related later. Also, the listed victory point values of the available defenses closely matched those of the attacking forces but remember, points were not considered in determining individual or team performance in the scenario, only hits on assigned targets.
THE TARGETS
On each map there were a number of targets that could be attacked. The defending team had to deploy its defenses to protect the lot. Therefore the disposition of the defenses on the map was totally up to the defending team. The Attackers secretly rolled to determine what their target and aircraft load out would be from predetermined options. The possible targets on each map and the die rolls were as follows:
Waterloo City Map (Game Tables 1 & 2):
- Die roll Target Assigned Strike Package
1,2 Municipal Airport 2 Iron Hand, 2 Runway Attack
3,4 Rail Yards2 Iron Hand, 2 Surface Strike
5,6 River Bridges2 Iron Hand, 2 Precision Attack
7,8 POL Tank Farm2 Iron Hand, 2 Surface Strike
9,10 Warehouse Area 2 Iron Hand, 2 Surface Strike
Souix City Airport Map (Game Tables 3 and 4):
- Die roll Target Assigned Strike Package
1,2 Barracks Area 2 Iron Hand, 2 Surface Strike
3,4 H.Q. Building 2 Iron Hand, 2 Precision Attack
5,6 POL Tank Farm 2 Iron Hand, 2 Surface Strike
7,8 Main Runway 2 Iron Hand, 2 Runway Attack
9,10 A/C Hangars 2 Iron Hand, 2 Surface Strike
THE DEFENSES
The defenses consisted of a number of AAA units, some SAM units and two aircraft. To keep the attackers guessing, the exact units were randomly determined by die rolls from the following tables:
Die Roll AAA Units Assigned
1,2,3 1 x S-60 + FCR-C, 2 x ZPU-4, 3 x ZU-23.
4,5,6,7 2 x ZSU-23-4,2 x S-60,2 x ZPU-2.
8,9,10 2 x OLK-35 + 2 x FCR-B, 3 x ZPU-2.
Die Roll SAM Units Assigned
1,2,3,4 2 x SA-813, 2 x FIM-92 (stinger)*.
5,6,7 1 x SA-613, 2 x SA-13.
8,9,10 3 x SA-11, 1 x SA-14*.
* Infantry SAMs have 1 missile each but start play hidden.
- Die Roll Aircraft Assigned
1,2,3,4 : 2 x MiG-21bis Fishbed N each with 4 x Magic-I IR.Ms and 4 Flares.
5,6,7 : 2 x MiG-23MF Flogger G each with 2 x AA-7A and 4 x AA-8A and 4 Flares.
8,9,10 : 1 x MiG-29 with 2 x AA- 10B, and 4 x AA-8A and 10 flares, plus I x Hunter Mk.9 with guns only.
Notes: 1. The aircraft enter play from opposite side of game map that the attackers enter from. 2. For every Altitude band overLO the attackers enter at, Radar S AM units are allowed one turn of pregame actions for obtaining locks and/or launches.
THE ATTACKERS
The two attacking teams at each table had to choose between flying FA-18s, F-16Cs, and Tornado GRAs. Both teams had to use the same aircraft in a round and no team could fly the same aircraft used in round I during round 2. A predetermined loadout for each aircraft type and mission was provided in advance for the players to examine. The loads were as follows:
FA-18 Surface Strike: Sta. 1,9= AIM-9L, Sta. 2,8=1,0001b. BE, Sta. 3,7=DR+ two 1,0001b. BE, Sta. 4,6-- AIM-7M, Sta. 5= 1700L FF. Conf.= DT, Load= 26, Wt.= 10,600.
FA-18 Iron Hand: Sta. 1,9= AIM-9L, Sta. 2,8= AGM-88 ARM, Sta. 3,7= DR + two 7501b. mixed CBU, Sta. 4,6-- AIM7M, Sta.5= 1700L Fr. Conf.= DT, Load= 24, Wt.= 9,200.
FA-18 Precision Strike: Sta. 1,9= AIM-9M, Sta. 2,8= 1,0001b. LGB, Sta. 3,7= 1,0001b. LGB, Sta. 4,6-- F-18 OP and F- 18 LP, Sta. 5= 1700L FT. Conf.= DT, Load= 21, Wt.= 8,060.
FA-18 Runway Attack: Sta. 1,9= AIM-9L, Sta.2,8= TR + three 4501b. Runway Cratering Bombs, Sta. 3,7= TR + three 4501b. RCB, Sta. 4,6-- AIM-7M, Sta. 5= 1700L Fr. Conf.= DT, Load= 20, Wt.= 7,300.
F-16C Surface Strike: Sta. 1,9= AIM-9M, Sta. 2,8-- 5001b. BE, Sta. 3,7= TR + three 5001b. BE, Sta. 4,6-- 1200L FF, Sta. 5= AJM/DJM C6 pod. ConL= DT, Load= 26, Wt.= 9,500.
F-16C Iron Hand: Sta. 1,9-- AIM-9M, Sta. 2,8-- 5001b. mixed CBU, Sta. 3,7= AGM-88 ARM, Sta. 4,6-- 1200L Fr, Sta. 5= AJM/DJM C6 pod. Conf.= DT, Load=20, Wt.= 7,900.
F-16C Precision Strike: Sta. 1,9= AIM-9M, Sta. 2,8= empty, Sta. 3,7= AGM-130 TVGB, Sta. 4,6-- 1200L Fr, Sta. 5= AJM/ DJM C6 pod. Conf.= DT, Load= 20, WL= 9,700.
F-16C Runway Affack: Sta. 1,9= AIM-9M, Sta. 2,8= 4501b. RCB, Sta. 3,7= TR + three 4501b. RCB, Sta. 4,6-- 1200L Fr, Sta. 5= AJM/DJMC6pod. Conf.=DT,Load= 17.5,Wt.=6,750.
Tornado Surface Strike: Sta. I= AJM/DJM C5 pod, Sta. 5= Eur. DDS pod #3, Sta. 2,4= one AIM-9M + 1500L Fr, Sta. 6,7,8,9= DR + two 11001b. BE, Sta. 3= empty. Conf.= DT, Load= 36, Wt.= 16,300.
Tornado Iron Hand: Sta. 1= AJM/DJM C5, Sta. 5= Eur. DDS pod #3, Sta. 2,4= two ALARM + 850L Fr, sta. 6,7,8,9= 8001b. AP CBU, Sta. 3= 1200L Fr. Conf.= DT, Load= 31, WL= 12,100.
Tornado Precision Strike: Sta. 1 = AJM1DJM C5 pod, Sta. 5= Eur. DDS pod #3, Sta. 2,4= one AIM-9M + 2,0001b. LGB., Sta. 6,7= ALARM, Sta. 3= Nato LP. Conf.= DT, Load= 18.5, WL= 7,250.
Tornado Runway Attack: Sta. 1= AJM/DJM C5 pod, Sta. 5= Eur. DDS pod #3, Sta. 2,4= AIM-9M + 1500L FT, Sta. 6,7,8,9= JP-233 pod, Sta. 3= empty. Conf.= DT, Load= 23, WL= 15,100.
Tournament Outline
The Tourney was to be an all day affair. Players gathered and were briefed at 8:00AM, round one was played from 9:00 to 12:00 followed by a lunch break. Round two was from 12:30 to 15:30 with a break and round three went from 16:00 to 19:00. Wrap up was immediately after.
The players were asked to sign up and form two man teams which would remain together all day. Each team was coded with a letter from A to L. Each team would get to fly one attack sortie, one Iron Hand sortie and defend as the Iraqis once. The Team and Table rotation was set up as follows:
| ROUND ONE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Table | Strikers | Iron Hand | Defenders |
| 1 | A | G | L |
| 2 | B | H | K |
| 3 | C | I | F |
| 4 | D | J | E |
| ROUND TWO | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Table | Strikers | Iron Hand | Defenders |
| 1 | E | F | J |
| 2 | K | L | I |
| 3 | H | A | D |
| 4 | G | B | C |
| ROUND THREE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Table | Strikers | Iron Hand | Defenders |
| 1 | I | D | H |
| 2 | J | C | G |
| 3 | F | K | A |
| 4 | L | E | B |
THE PLAYERS
The following is the list of participants:
| Team | Name/Call Sign | Name/Call Sign |
|---|---|---|
| A = | Mark Bovankovich Top Wop | Curtis Maki Slather |
| B = | Cliff Alcorn Popcorn | Bob Sanders Iceman S. |
| C = | Michael Phelps Cougar | Gary Bear Gunner |
| D = | Bob Gross Grossman | Scott Kreiser Slick |
| E = | Fran Kiger Bald Eagle | Dan Foxman Dragon |
| F = | Paul West Wahoo | Rick Noetzel Redneck |
| G = | Tim Tynan Wildman | Fred Gray Bozo |
| H = | Mike Vanleeuwen Zee | Steve Madjanovich Madman |
| I = | Pat Slocomb Sole-man | Michael Daniel Maddog |
| J = | Karl Mueller Hollywood | Roger Taylor Woof |
| K = | Jim Rumizew Z-Man | Chip Sayers Raider Red |
| L = | John Caraher Quickdraw | Warren Nicholson Nitro |
Standbys:
Dave Brown / Slash
Bruce Merz Iceman II
Ed Connery Amarillo
One problem encountered during the sign in phase was that since I had more players than slots, those who showed up late or at the last minute risked being left out. As it was, I could accommodate 24 and had 27. The last three contestants had to be listed as standbys and I felt bad about that as I never could get them into the competition although a few did get to play later in the day.
Origins 91 Air Strike Tourney Report
-
Set Up
Combat Summaries: Round One
Combat Summaries: Round Two
Combat Summaries: Round Three
Combat Summary, Standings, and Awards
Back to Table of Contents -- Air Power # 17
Back to Air Power List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 1991 by J.D. Webster
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com