Soviet/Russian Cold War (and Modern) NBC/CBRN recon, attack warning and decontam

[John Kettler]

Below article has several embedded vids, and here's one of them. Lots to see here! Should be useful to the skin makers.

https://youtu.be/g4tYqQuikYo

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/24906/russia-uses-these-crazy-antique-jet-engine-equipped-trucks-to-blast-away-chemical-agents

Regards,

John Kettler

[Codreanu]

I don't think chemical weapons themselves would add anything to CMCW but I'd like some sort of tag to put all of the troops in CBRN gear with a corresponding decrease in stamina and visibility, mostly because it would look cool but I'd be interested in seeing how fighting in that stuff would actually force changes in your tactics.

[MOS:96B2P]

1 hour ago, Codreanu said:

I don't think chemical weapons themselves would add anything to CMCW but I'd like some sort of tag to put all of the troops in CBRN gear with a corresponding decrease in stamina and visibility, mostly because it would look cool but I'd be interested in seeing how fighting in that stuff would actually force changes in your tactics.

I agree it would look cool and it would be interesting to play some CM scenarios where persistent / non-persistent chemicals might be used.  It was often trained for during the Cold War.  However I don't expect it to be implemented in CMx2.  I've used house rules to attempt to simulate a chemical attack in an NTC type scenario. It definitely disrupts the tempo of friendly operations and makes things interesting.        

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Setting troops to Weakened or Unfit condition and messing with their morale is about as close as we can get.

Edited October 25, 2021 by Sgt.Squarehead

[MOS:96B2P]

52 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Setting troops to Weakened or Unfit condition and messing with their morale is about as close as we can get.

Thanks.  I was waiting for somebody to continue the conversation.  

In addition you could also use EW settings.  However, these settings and soft factors will be for the entire length of the scenario every time the scenario is played on the entire map.  IMO a chemical attack would be more interesting if it occurred in different locations, with different AI plans, on a huge map. 

As a result I've been testing some ideas in an NTC like setting.  These require house rules and the honesty of the player.  A foxhole fortification is assigned an AI group.  This is the only foxhole in the scenario.  Since it is a fortification it has Fog of War and is the visual indicator of a persistent chemical.  It is given five order spots it can jump to.  Three order spots are in the maneuver area of the map and two order spots are in an out of the way area.  So there is now a 60% chance (the % can be changed) that the foxhole will appear somewhere in the maneuver area at game start.  The foxhole could be made to appear anywhere on the map but chokepoints and obstacle belts probably make the most sense.  The obstacle belts and the foxhole order locations also change with the AI plans.  

The scenario starts and there is a 60% chance that a chemical attack will be used by the AI.  Depending on the chosen avenue of advance etc. the player may never get hit with the chemical attack even if the foxhole is placed in a maneuver area.  Due to FOW if the player does get hit with a chemical attack he will have some units within the contaminated area when the foxhole is discovered (due to FOW).  The foxhole is placed in a slight depression and in testing is discovered at about 50 meters.  After discovery the foxhole marks the center of a 500 meter 360^o contaminated area. 

The player then designates a unit to mark the contaminated area by placing a movement waypoint on the foxhole with a 250 meter radius 360^o armor target arc.  This makes the contaminated area easy to see.  The following restrictions apply to all the players units in the contaminated area:  Vehicles can only use Slow waypoints inside the contaminated area and must button.  Infantry cannot use Fast waypoints inside the contaminated area.  Infantry HQs C2 range is limited to 24meters (to limit C2 while using Hardcat Rules).  Infantry can only plot one waypoint per turn.  The restrictions only apply to units in the contaminated area and after leaving the contaminated area the restrictions are removed.   I'm still experimenting with these rules so if anyone has any suggestions please say so.  

With this system (which is a WIP) the player doesn't know when or if he'll get hit with chemicals.  If he is hit with chemicals he'll have a choice to make.  Switch to a different avenue of advance or fight through and out the other side.  Below are some screenshots from testing. 

An example OpFor obstacle belt, in the setup area, for the rotational unit to examine before starting the mission.  

 

The 250 meter radius of contaminated area from the foxhole marked by a 360 degree armor target arc.

 

 

A company team was hit with chemicals shortly after breaching an OpFor obstacle belt.  

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Interesting concept dude, I'd be interested to see how it works in the wider framework of your scenario.

As you can probably imagine I've been messing around in the CM:CW editor ever since I got the game.  Thus far I've very little to show for it, one partly done map of an Iranian town (stalled for want of foliage) and also a little project set on a CM:CW variant of a of @benpark's awesome Berlin map.....After I've nuked it! 

My thought was to make a 'Twilight 2000' type scenario, where the players must cross the hot-zone to escape from vastly superior forces.....TBH at present I'm mostly still removing walls from buildings and figuring out where & how to place the crater, but I suspect I'll be picking your brains when it comes time to implement the environment.