Post WWII Scenario

[Supremo]

Bay of Pigs - Alternate History in my first crack at scenario generation (apologies in advance to seasoned users for any and all "newbisms!!"). This scenario (generated with Ver. 1.20) takes up the theme of the 1961 invasion of Cuba (Operation Zapata) as it was planned (rather than as it was executed). US-allied Cuban exiles integrating Brigade 2506 invade Sovietized Cuba in April 1961 following the (crucial!) elimination of Castro's Air Force. The equipment used during the battle dated from WWII or had comparable capabilities to WWII weaponry.

Although ALL vanilla for now, a considerable effort has been made to accurately represent the map of the battle zone (consisting of a beachhead isolated from the mainland by an extensive swamp crossed by few roads). Accurate representation of the number and relative strengths of the units involved (based on both U.S. and Cuban publications) has also been attempted using a mix of pre-existing editor units.

For background reading on the battle, I'd recommend "Decision for Disaster: The Battle of the Bay of Pigs" by Grayston L. Lynch; also "The Bay of Pigs-The Leader's Story of Brigade 2506" by Haynes Johnson.

Any and all comments/suggestions would be sincerely appreciated as I view this attempt as a learning (and occupational therapy ) experience!

DOWNLOAD:http://www.gamefront.com/files/23785964/BOP_zip

[BiteNibbleChomp]

You may need to redo the equipment file so that most units in this can be purchased in the early 1960s. As far as I know all units stop being able to be purchased in Dec 1945.

- BNC

[Supremo]

BNC; yes I am working on modifying the equipment and units files to include new units as necessary. I will be posting an updated version of the scenario incorporating these and many other changes in the near future.

These will be the icons for some of the modified units:

Bde_2506_HW.png (27.15 KiB) Viewed 12401 times

Bde_2506_inf.png (26.34 KiB) Viewed 12401 times

MNR (Milicia Nacional Revolucionaria)

MNR.png (24.4 KiB) Viewed 12447 times

[Ballermann]

Nice looking units.

[bebro]

Indeed, good work.

[Jojeval]

To mark the 55th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, I have completed a scenario (based on extensive research) that attempts to encompass the historical circumstances of the battle as well as hypothetical eventualities that could reasonably have occurred. The scenario has been designed to be played from the side of the Cuban-exile invading forces (Brigade 2506) in single-player mode (it will play poorly in the reverse single-player role).

The U.S.-backed invasion in the Zapata Swamp region of Cuba (codenamed “Operation Zapata”) called for an air-supported force of some 1500 air and sea borne troops to hold the few access routes to a beachhead encompassing several square miles east and north of the Bay of Pigs. The access routes consisted of three narrow roads through the swamp and one coastal pathway on the east. After consolidating the beachhead, the exile Cuban Revolutionary Council would arrive from the U.S. and be recognized as provisional government of Cuba by the American government. The operation as planned called for the complete elimination, through air raids, of Castro’s air force before the D-day landings so as to allow the B-26 aircraft of the invasion force (the tail guns of which had been removed) total air superiority over the battlefield. As it developed, political considerations by the U.S. government curtailed this aspect of the plan and Castro’s air force (the Fuerza Aerea Revolucionaria or FAR) played a decisive factor in the battle. Two of the Brigade’s main supply ships were sunk by the FAR in the dawn hours of April 17 while others were forced to remain out at sea during the course of the invasion.

As can be seen from the screenshots below, a number of new types of units are represented in the scenario, including:

• Brigade 2506 infantry units
• Communist Cuban Militia and Rebel Army units
• M41 tanks
• M-30 and 120-PM mortars
• M53 12.7 mm quad anti-aircraft gun
• 85mm D44 artillery
• M35A1 gun trucks
• Sea Fury aircraft
• T-33 jet aircraft

BOP1a.jpg (246.39 KiB) Viewed 12049 times

Also represented are the the B-26 bombers of Brigade 2506 that flew on missions from Nicaragua to Cuba.

BOP2.jpg (238.25 KiB) Viewed 12049 times

The scenario zip file (with contains a README file with more information about its design elements) can be downloaded from the Game Front website but I'm not being allowed to post the URL here . Any thoughts anyone?

[McGuba]

That's some great ideas indeed! Many thanks and welcome to the world of PzC modding.

As far as I know you cannot post links here until you make at least 5 posts (or maybe 10?) in order to avoid unwanted advertisements and stuff, so all you need to do is to make some more posts, preferably revealing some more features of this very promising mod and after a few more you should be able to post an URL for us to download.

[Jojeval]

Thank you kindly, McGuba! This has been a labor of love and has also helped me to focus my historical research of this battle with the double purpose of serving as the basis for a book project in progress. The order of battle and unit names provided for both sides are historically accurate.

While trying to make the scenario entertaining to play, I have striven to make it as historically accurate as possible within the limitations of the game engine. One tough issue to overcome arose from the limited road access into the beachhead which restricted units to advance in "single file" (as in the actual battle). The AI would not retreat the lead unit even as it was repeatedly pummeled after reaching the front line, thus making it easy to win just by sitting back and doing nothing! This was overcome through extensive use of scripts, of which there are over 100 in the scenario.

Another issue addressed through the use of scripts is the imposition of "day/night" turns. The scenario is nominally constructed on the basis of 4 turns per day, which would normally mean that the final turn per day would represent the slot of time corresponding to 1700-2000 hours with the ensuing turn representing 0800-1100 hours of the following day. However, much of the fighting during the Bay of Pigs battle took place during nighttime, when air operations were not possible by either side. Local nighttime consists of the turns corresponding to 20:00-23:00, 23:00-02:00 and 02:00-05:00. Because the PC game engine does not allow simulation of nighttime conditions directly, the scenario approximates the same by invoking the game’s Weather “rain option” with 100% probability of occurrence during each “nighttime” turn. During such turns no air support is available and the “muddy” conditions generated by the game engine, with concomitant movement costs, can be conceived as representing movement curtailments due to darkness. (As a note of interest, April is normally a dry month in Cuba and no rainfall occurred during the invasion). Following the first 4 turns of gameplay, messages are displayed at the beginning of each turn giving the actual time and date represented by each turn. This is necessary as the dates displayed by the game engine will be off-kilter due to the imposition of the three nighttime turns imposed in the scenario.

In another posting I will address some interesting "what ifs" of the battle revealed during game play.

[flakfernrohr]

Good to have a new modding member with that kind of talent! Welcome and enjoy. They guys on this forum are really gentlemen and scholars in the truest sense of the words.

[captainjack]

I have used sandstorms to represent fog when I don't want to change ground wetness.
One of the more experienced modders should be able to confirm if you can change ground moisture condition in game using scripts. If so, you could add moisture to make the ground hard to travel across at night, and remove this in the morning.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

That's some great ideas indeed! Many thanks and welcome to the world of PzC modding.

As far as I know you cannot post links here until you make at least 5 posts (or maybe 10?) in order to avoid unwanted advertisements and stuff, so all you need to do is to make some more posts, preferably revealing some more features of this very promising mod and after a few more you should be able to post an URL for us to download.

Its 5

- BNC

[McGuba]

Thank you kindly, McGuba! This has been a labor of love and has also helped me to focus my historical research of this battle with the double purpose of serving as the basis for a book project in progress. The order of battle and unit names provided for both sides are historically accurate.

While trying to make the scenario entertaining to play, I have striven to make it as historically accurate as possible within the limitations of the game engine.

I totally agree. I am also a big supporter of historical accuracy here and I do believe that it is possible to make both historically accurate AND entertaining scenarios for this game. Obviously within the limitations of the engine.

Your implementation of night turns is a great idea and you found a good enough technical solution to simulate it. Unless you have done it already, you might want to consider adding a new tile overlay for night turns, similarily to the "neutral territory" special hexes to indicate night time. At the beginning of each night turn a hex action script would add this tile overlay to all of the map and in the morning another script would remove it. Something like this:

sample03.jpg (73.94 KiB) Viewed 11896 times

I think it would greatly help the player's visual orientation (so that he would not forget that it is night time in the middle of the turn of in case he saves and continues the scenario later), and it would be just another nice little touch.

[Jojeval]

Great suggestion, McGuba! I will experiment with adding a tile overlay for night turns. Based on the sample you provided it would like much better than the standard "muddy" conditions overlay.

Regarding captainjack's suggestion of changing ground moisture conditions using scripts, I would indeed love to hear from someone if that is in fact doable. I'm aware that under Global Parameters one can indicate ground state conditions but only for before the game starts.

My thanks to flakfernrohr for the kind welcome!

[Jojeval]

Below are the day/night differences I've introduced into the scenario per McGuba's excellent suggestion. The approach that I used to achieve this effect was to replace the "mission area C" icon in the LayerMarker template with a "night" overlay icon. This permits overlaying the "night" icon over the existing graphics by turning it on with hex action scripts. To turn it off, I found that specifying an unassigned number (e.g., 6) in the Markers edit box did the job. As seen in the screenshot, the game engine automatically highlights occupied and adjacent hexes but farther away the "night" effect is much more marked.

day_night.jpg (202.29 KiB) Viewed 11793 times

BTW, I found some postings from last year in another forum inquiring about the existence anywhere of a scenario depot for Panzer Corps custom made scenarios. None of the replies identified any. Is this indeed the current state of affairs in that regard?

[Cataphract88]

There are some 'stickies' above the topics of Scenario Design, and scenarios are usually placed here by a moderator.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

There are some 'stickies' above the topics of Scenario Design, and scenarios are usually placed here by a moderator.

Senda PM to one of the moderators and they'll add your scenario to it.

- BNC

[Jojeval]

Below is the link to download my Bay of Pigs scenario described in previous posts. Any scenario gaming comments/observations would be welcomed.

There are some interesting what-if historical questions on which the scenario sheds some light. The plan for the invasion called for paratroopers (from 1st Battalion) of Brigade 2506 to seize and hold the town of Pálpite, critically situated on the beachhead-side of the westernmost causeway through the bordering swamp. Troops of the 2nd and 5th Battalions disembarked at Playa Larga, some three miles to the south, would march toward Pálpite to reinforce the paratroopers holding the town. As it developed, the paratroopers (out of communication with the rest of the Brigade) occupied Pálpite only briefly and the 2nd Battalion at Playa Larga (the 5th Battalion having been unable to land as scheduled due to air attacks) did not move forward to take the town. On the Communist side, Fidel Castro immediately recognized the tactical importance of Pálpite and ordered that seizing it be given top priority. Upon being notified that the town had been occupied, he gleefully declared: “We have won the war!” My experience with playing the scenario substantiates the criticality of securing Pálpite; I have been unable to win a single game when failing to do so.

Another interesting what-if question regards the use of the Brigade’s B-26 bombers. Giving the failure to destroy the Communist planes on the ground before the D-Day landings, the B-26 bombers (which lacked tail guns) faced overwhelming odds against the Communist fighters. The one or two squadron elements (2-4 aircraft) deployed over the beachhead at a time fell easy prey to the T-33s and Sea Furies. Scenario play suggests that timely “en masse” attacks (just before nightfall, to curtail interdiction) would have been far more effective in maximizing damage on ground units in proportion to air losses. This reconciles well with observations by the British during the Falklands/Malvinas war. British pilots have noted that attacks “en masse” by Argentine aircraft would have overwhelmed the ability of the Sea Harrier CAP to shield the fleet from attacks.

PLEASE NOTE: The scenario is designed to be played with the human player controlling the Brigade 2506 (Allied) side against the computer in single-player mode. It is not configured for play in the reverse single-player mode.

Download link:https://bit.ly/3TKnr0y [ver. 3.6 as of 22.02.23 with minor change to order of battle]

See viewtopic.php?f=147&t=45470&start=20#p653988 for an ALTERNATE HISTORY/OPERATION AS-PLANNED version.

[Akkula]

Great. I can say I will be able to play it soon as I have my hands full with my new project, but I will do it sometime!.

Thanks a lot.

Best regards.
Akkul.a

[Jojeval]

Greetings to all. Version 1.12 of the Bay of Pigs scenario for Panzer Corps can now be downloaded from the above link. Among other minor changes, the new version includes a new icon for the Czech-made M53 12.7 mm quad anti-aircraft gun used by the Cuban Communist forces. M53 AA guns made up the bulk of the ground air defenses in the battle area and were credited with bringing down a B-26 bomber flown by two Americans on the last day of the conflict.

M53 AA quad gun.jpg (35.86 KiB) Viewed 10602 times

The M53 was equipped with two wheels which allowed it to be towed behind a vehicle. The wheels were detached during operational emplacement of the gun. The revised icon represents the latter configuration.

M53_icon.png (30.36 KiB) Viewed 10606 times

[Jojeval]

I have made significant revisions to the Bay of Pigs scenario and incorporated them into a version 2.0, now downloadable from the link above. In addition to correcting the turn-of-entry for some units, the principal changes have involved terrain edits. The README file for the scenario has also been updated.

As in earlier versions, to represent the geographic characteristics of the Bay of Pigs area in tropical Cuba, new terrain names are introduced in the scenario corresponding to the established Panzer Corps terrain types as follows:

Deep Swamp = Shallow Sea
Causeway (route through Deep Swamp) = Swamp
Dense Woods (not penetrated by significant roads/trails) = Mountains
Muck = Thick Forest
Woods (penetrated by significant roads/trails) = Forest
Impaired AF (airfield) = Clear

"Causeway" was not used in earlier versions of the scenario. The close terrain aspect of the causeways makes armored units much less effective against infantry in these crucial beachhead ingress routes. In addition, the City (rather than Clear) terrain type is now used for all flag- and name-bearing settlements. Although both cities (dense buildings icons) and smaller hamlets/villages (scattered buildings icons) are represented in the scenario by the City terrain type, an instant, fixed entrenchment value of 8 is assigned only to ground units inside cities. Again, the close terrain aspect of the City terrain type significantly curtails the effectiveness of tanks within such hexes against infantry units although the higher Base Entrenchment of this terrain type offers significant advantages especially to defending infantry.

The overall effect of these changes is to make the tactical dynamics of game-play much different, although ostensibly more realistic, that in earlier versions.

Thanks for your interest and, as always, your feedback is most welcome!