Cold War Bomber Games - Making Them Interesting

[Mako]

Lots of historical topics to choose from, surprisingly, for this era, and even more interesting ones, if you want to go hypothetical.

Historical events include: Suez Crisis, Arab-Israeli Wars, Korea, Vietnam, India vs. Pakistan, Falklands, Iran vs. Iraq, etc., etc..

For hypothetical scenarios, the Cold War looms rather large.

Looking to spice the games up a bit for both sides, instead of just running your typical, bombers on the tabletop, and shoot them down scenarios, which of course, while they can be satisfying, can become a bit simplistic, and monotonous, I suspect.  Getting the play balance right can be difficult too.

Thinking about having one side choose their air defenses, from a list of options available for the historical period(s), and to then array them in a logical fashion, to repel the attackers.

For the attackers, they'll need to plan attack routes and tactics, to get through to their targets, while minimizing losses to their side, and to keep their opponents guessing.

For both sides, perhaps some hidden deployments and movements, in order to make things interesting.  I may consider running things operationally on a map, and then playing out the more interesting contacts for the battles on the tabletop, using miniatures.  That way, the big picture can be represented, as well as the tactical level too.

May use a mix of scales, based upon available models, and game scope.  1/600th being the most likely, but perhaps even 1/300th for some battles.  1/1200th would be an option too, and certainly is a nice scale for depicting fast movement on the tabletop, and large expanses of terrain to fly over, but the little blighters are so expensive now as to make them less attractive to me, even after considering their positive attributes - in some cases, they cost more than their larger, 1/600th cousins, which is a true shame.

Considering a mix of tactical, as well as strategic bombing, since apparently that was part of the real plan if "the balloon went up".  Tactical aircraft, and/or short and medium-ranged ballistic and cruise missiles would be used to clear a path for the strategic bombers, through radar screens, and to take out SAM sites and enemy air bases, whilst the strategic bombers flew in afterwards through the attack corridors cleared for them.  You can finally break out those old, obsolescent jets, and give them major roles, since many of them had the ability to carry tactical nukes.

As TG mentions, the range of options in Cold War gaming is significantly more complex than for WWII, in many cases, due to the array of options available, and the sophistication of the defenses.

See here for some of the issues he's considered:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=103854.15

I'm considering several time periods as well, e.g. 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and perhaps even, the 1980s too, since the various tech levels available to both sides certainly provide some interesting challenges for the opponents.  Imagine just having to use puny guns/cannons, or even unguided rockets to try to take down bombers carrying nuclear warheads, assuming you can even find the bombers attacking your homeland in the first place.  Those, are then replaced by aircraft with very limited radar tech, and unreliable air-to-air missiles.  Eventually, things improve for you, but also for your opponents as well.

Anyway, that's an overview of what I'm considering, for some modern, aerial gaming, since I haven't run any games like this before.  I think the challenge of setting up aerial defenses and deploying them, as well as figuring out the best tactics to counter those, and/or avoid them should make for a more interesting game than just having to fly across the tabletop, and to shoot at stuff.

To make them a bit more interesting too, I'm thinking of coming up with some sort of points system for both sides as well, so not only are the players battling their opponents, but also their compatriots, for bragging rights, in who is the most effective during the game(s).  

I'm most likely going to use Airwar: C21 rules for the game(s), with some house rules bolted on as well, just for grins.  Might even add in altitude bands too, just for fun, especially for any games using the old tactics of high level bombing, before the switch to low level incursions, as Soviet/WP SAM defenses improved, in the early 1960s.

I read in one article, that apparently in 1958 (and perhaps beyond), the Soviet Air Defense Radars had difficulty with height finding about 30,000' altitude, so their ability to aid their aerial interceptors was very ineffective.  Supposedly, they couldn't provide height data to their aircraft above that level, and their aircraft had very short radar ranges, if they had any aerial radar at all.

Not exactly sure when that improved, so if anyone has info on that, I'd love to hear it.

Also, in the 1960s, with the switch to low level tactics by NATO bombers/aircraft, the Soviets were again caught with their pants down, since their airborne radar didn't have any lookdown/shootdown capability.  Not until 1972, did they get even marginal ability to provide that, with the introduction of the Mig-23, and as late as 1978 to the early 1980s, they didn't have a true, good, LD/SD capability.  Even the Mig-25's abilities were rather limited, but the introduction of the Mig-31 changed all that.  Supposedly, 4 x Foxhounds could patrol an 800km. wide swath of territory, with their powerful radars, and datalink capabilities.  Their radar data could be shared with ground control, and even other, less capable aircraft, with the Mig-31s being able to guide up to three aircraft each to their targets.

Some of the 1960s era, Soviet, air-to-air radars were useless below 8,000 - 10,000 feet in altitude, and even below 23,000' or so, they could suffer from "ground clutter".  Their very short ranges made them difficult to use, if not almost impossible, for air-to-air searches as well.  They were really designed to help the interceptors close in on a target that they'd been vectored to by GCI, at night, or in poor weather, in order to make a visual ID, before firing their weapons.  NATO bombers, flying in at 500' or 200' altitudes, would be virtually immune to them, unless vectored in by ground control, or shot at by SAMs and flak guns on the ground.

I'm interested in hearing other ideas as well, to make things challenging for the players too, if you have anything to share, e.g. like ideas for running games with bad weather, etc., etc..