Operation Husky
An Aces High™ Scenario
Version 9

Please read “Dates and Times” and “Main Rules” sections.

Dates and Times  

Click here for registration.  Please register for the event if you can play at least 3 frames.

If you can’t play in at least 3 frames, you can still show up as a walkon (unregistered player) on game day.

Battles/Frames:

• October 1
• October 8
• October 15
• October 22

Please show up at 3 pm US Eastern time in Special Events 2 arena. (For how that translates to your time, here is a time converter.)  End of frame will be nominally at 6:30 pm US Eastern time.

Setting

It is July, 1943, and the allies are launching an invasion of Sicily.  The axis recently was pushed out of North Africa, but they have plenty of aerial might staged for the coming battles.

Join us for Operation Husky, for the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica vs. the Northwest African Air Force.

Spitfire VIII’s, Spitfire IX’s, P-40’s, B-26’s vs. Bf 109G-6’s, FW 190A-5’s, C.205’s.

Join us for the glorious battle!

Main Rules

• General:

• Level bombers must take off with formations and not intentionally lose drones.
• Pilots get 3 lives in primary plane.
• If you run out of your 3 lives in primary plane, you get 2 more in a secondary plane, listed under Order of Battle below.
• You use up a life if you die, crash, ditch (except as noted), bail, or exit your plane with anything other than a “landed successfully” message.
• Do not land on carriers.
• Do not change paths of task groups.
• You can man a gun at any time (for bomber or ground gun), and deaths in guns don't count to your life total.

• Altitude:
• There is a downwind at 24k.  (You can fly into the downwind if you wish, but staying in it will sap your speed.)
• Level bombers have max altitude of 16k.
• Fighterbombers/jabos, when carrying bombs, have max altitude of 18k.

Map

Map for Frames 1 and 2.

• Blue ovals are allied launch fields.  The A10 north spawn will launch at height of 1000 ft.
• Blue “ship” markers are where there are ships (and thus radar, too).
• Red ovals are axis launch fields.
• Level-bomber Targets are hangars at a167 (blue box) and hangars at v199 (light-blue box).
• Fighter-bomber Targets are bunkers at v199 (light-blue box), and buidlings/bunkers at fuel factory (purple box).
• Fighter-bombers may destroy guns at bases and at associated towns in blue, light-blue, and purple boxes.

Map for Frames 3 and 4.

• Blue ovals are allied launch fields.
• Blue “ship” markers are where there are ships (and thus radar, too).
• The dashed line is the approximate front line, separating allied from axis territory.
• Red ovals are axis launch fields.
• Level-bomber Targets are hangars at a155 and v156, and buildings/bunkers at two troop factories north of a165 (light-blue boxes).
• Fighter-bomber Targets are bunkers at a155 and v156, and buildings/bunkers at two troop factories north of a165 (light-blue boxes).
• Fighter-bombers may destroy guns at bases, associated towns, and the two troop facilities (light-blue boxes).

Victory Conditions

If your side fails to do this within the frame, it will get no points at all for that frame:

• Level-bomber groups:

• must Attempt at least three Bombing Missions.
• must Attempt Bombing Missions to at least two different Target Types.

• Fighter-bomber groups:

• must Attempt at least three Bombing Missions.
• must Attempt Bombing Missions to at least two different Target Types.

• “Attempt” means to complete the Mission or either die trying or jettison ordnance because of enemy in icon range.
• One “Bombing Mission” is launch with bombs, travel toward a Target, drop bombs on a Target, and land back at a base if still alive.
• “Targets” are given in maps.
• “Target Types” are air base, vehicle base, troop facility, fuel factory, port.

Frame points:

• +1 per kill.
• +3 per Successful Drop by level-bomber pilot.
• +1 per Successful Drop by fighter-bomber/jabo pilot.
• +0.5 per destroyed ground gun by fighter-bomber/jabo pilot, up to +1 in destroyed guns per pilot.
• For level-bomber pilots:

• “Successful Drop” means when a level-bomber pilot destroys at least one Target building in a Mission.
• You don’t get more Successful Drop points for destroying more than one such object in the same Mission.

• For fighter-bomber/jabo pilots:

• “Successful Drop” means when a pilot in a fighter-bomber group destroys at one Target building in a Mission.
• You don’t get more Successful Drop points for destroying more than one such object in the same Mission.

Winner of a frame is the side with most points.  Winner of the Scenario is the side that wins the most frames.

Allied Order of Battle -- Primary Planes

19 fighters, 6 fighter-bombers, 4 bombers; 29 total.

• 145 Sqn. has skin called “PFT/145S”.

• If you run out of your 3 lives in primary plane, you get 2 more lives in:

• Fighter pilots -> P-40F’s.
• Bomber pilots -> B-25C’s.
• Fighter-bomber pilots -> Hurricane II’s.

Axis Order of Battle -- Primary Planes

22 fighters; 22 total.

• If you run out of your 3 lives in primary plane, you get 2 more lives in C.202.

Moving Around Pilots

CO's may split groups up into separate flights and send them on separate missions as they see fit.

CO's may assign walkons as they see fit up to the limit of slots available.  If there are more walkons than spots available, allies can overfill Spit IX’s; and axis can overfill Bf 109G-6’s and/or C.205’s.

CO's may move registered pilots to different aircraft if the registered pilots are willing.  But if a registered pilot wants to keep the plane he is registered for, he must be allowed to stay in that plane.

Items of Note

Please get your people into the appropriate named squads.  Useful squad dot commands that can be used from your text radio buffer:

• .sqdaccept [gameID] -- What you type to accept an         invite into a squad.
• .sqdwithdraw -- What you type to withdraw from whatever squad you are in.  Useful to do if you are having problems getting into a new squad.  Withdraw, then get a new invite and accept.
• .sqddecline [gameID] -- Decline a squad join request.
• .sqdeject GameID -- Eject a player from the squad.
• .sqdinvite [gameID] -- Sends squad invite while in         flight.
• .sqdname [SquadName] -- Rename squad, updates the roster.  Can be useful to get someone into your sqaud if having trouble.
• .sr -- display squad members.

Settings

Disabled weapons

• 109G-6 and 190A-5 have no rockets.

Details

• Terrain. italy
• Wind. 45 mph downwind at 24k.
• Clouds. Medium scattered clouds.
• Radar and Sector Counters. No radar or sector counters below 1000 ft.  Sector counters above 1000 ft.
• Ack: Auto ack will be turned way down.

• ArenaFlags = 275502
• BomberWarningRange = 21,120 (4 miles)
• CommunicationFlags = 3
• CountryChangeTime = (no changing of countries once started)
• ExitWhileMoving = 508
• FighterWarningRange = 21,120 (4 miles)
• FlightModeFlags = 5248
• FogLoFarMiles = 12.0
• FogLoNearMiles = 1.0
• FuelBurnRateMult = 1.0
• GroundAutoLethality[Armored] = 0.1
• GroundAutoLethality[Hard] = 0.1
• GroundAutoLethality[Soft] = 0.1
• RadarMode = 384 (counters above radar, range-based counters)
• RadarUpdateRate = 90
• SectorCounterAlt = 1000
• SectorCounterRange = 158,400 (30 miles)
• TowerBasedRadarRange = 158,400 (30 miles)
• StratFlags = 1

• Arm auto gun, down time = 600, hardness = 0.02 (gna, ship 5” autoack, flak tower puffy ack)
• Auto gun, down time = 0.1 (gng, ground autoack 30 mm, ship autoack 20 mm, puffy from f-bases)
• Bmbr hgr, down time = 5, hardness = 1.0
• Bunk ammo, down time = 5, hardness = 0.25
• Bunk barracks, down time = 5, hardness = 0.25
• Bunk fuel, down time = 5, hardness = 0.25
• Bunk radar, down time = 5, hardness = 0.25
• Fact bar, down time = 5, hardness = 0.25
• Fact fuel, down time = 5, hardness = 0.25
• Ftr hgr, down time = 5, hardness = 1.0
• Gun bat, down time = 600 (bat)
• Gun bat armor, down time = 600 (baa)
• Gun bat soft, down time = 600 (bas, manned ack ground and ship)
• Hard auto gun, down time = 600 (gnh, autoack ship, flak tower normal ack)
• Veh hgr, downtime = 5, hardness = 1.0

Do “.det fXXXgna 1” for all the fields and ships in battle area, to avoid fights being in constant puffy ack.

Task groups are c7, c9, c180, and c187.

-- Do “.det fXXXbaa 1” and “.det fXXXbat 1” to disable 5”, 8”, and quad 40 mm.

-- Do “.det fXXXgnh 1” to disable rest of puffy ack.

Do “.sethardness cv cv 256000” to make CV’s not sinkable (as they represent large fleets and lots of radar).

From time to time, manually, do the following to restore flak tower auto ack (gnh).

-- “.restore f167gnh” during frames 1 and 2.

-- “.restore f165gnh” during frames 3 and 4.

CM Items

MOTD

Welcome to the Scenario "Operation Husky"!

To play, please show up by 3 pm Eastern on Saturday.

If you are not registered, you are welcome to play,

but please stay in country Rook until you are assigned

to a side.

Pilots get three lives.

You use up a life if you die, crash, ditch, bail, or exit

your plane with anything other than a "landed successfully".

References

• Thomas, Andrew. Spitfire Aces of North Africa and Italy: 98 (Aircraft of the Aces). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
• Johannes Steinhoff. Messerschmitts Over Sicily: Diary of a Luftwaffe Fighter Commander (Stackpole Military History Series). Kindle Edition.
• Molesworth, Carl. P-40 Warhawk Aces of the MTO (Aircraft of the Aces) . Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
• Wikipedia, Operation Husky order of battle:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Husky_order_of_battle#Allied_Air_Forces
• 309th FS:
  http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/31st/309th.html
• C.205 groups:
  https://www.asisbiz.com/MC-205.html 

Credits

Scenario design: Scenario community

Game-day CM:  Brooke

Allied CO:  AKRocco (BB:  Rocco)

Allied CM’s:  Brooke, Swareiam

Axis CO:  Ditto (BB:  KCDitto)

Axis CM’s:  Perdue3, Spikes

Change Log

v1, 7/15/2022

-- First draft.

v2, 7/18/2022

-- Changed some squadron names.

v3, 7/20/2022

-- Changed an axis airfield from Catania to Gerbini.

-- Made language on targets more clear.

-- Changed picture to artwork.

v4, 7/25/2022

-- Added 2 lives in secondary planes for folks who run out of 3 lives in primary plane.

v5, 7/27/2022

-- Changed Spit VIII squad from 92 Sqn. to 417 Sqn.

v6, 8/22/2022

-- Add that task groups will be c7, c9, c180, c187.

-- Add that task groups get 5”, 8”, and quad 40 mm disabled with .det.

-- Add that task groups cannot have their paths changed.

-- Put in high hardness of CV’s (as they represent lots of ships and radar) so that they are not sunk.

v7, 8/23/2022

-- .det ship gnh’s as well (as some of those are puffy ack).

-- set downtime of gnh long (as we need it to stay down).

-- will need to restore gnh at factories from time to time manually.

v8, 9/3/2022

-- Changed fighter-bomber target from p173 to v199.

-- Changed radarUpdateRate from 120 to 90.

v9, 9/22/2022

-- Ditto as axis CO.  Way to go, Ditto!