Mannerheim's Cross

PREFACE

This scenario is a simulation of warfare in Northern Europe.  As such it 
is similar to the Baltic scenario GIUKMS01.  While that scenario concentrates
on the southern Baltic area, this scenario's action takes place mostly over
the northern Baltic Sea and in Finnish airspace.

STRATEGIC BACKGROUND

The Nordic countries represent a special area in the European military theatre
in case of war. Finland and Norway both have borders with Russia (and FUSSR).
Besides being close to important Red bases and cities, they also control major waterways in the area: the Baltic, Barents and Norwegian Seas.  Thus, the main strategic areas for the region are the airspace over Lapland, the entry to the Baltic (southwest Finland, Aland and Estonia), the land areas of each country, and the Danish Straits and southern Sweden.  The airspace in Lapland is important for the FUSSR because it allows the Red air force to make direct attacks against the NATO bases in Norway and Iceland and allows shorter transit times for maritime patrol aircraft and bombers flying from the Red bases to the Atlantic.  The second most important thing is controlling the Baltic, which includes possession of all entrances to it, including the Danish Straits and the Bay of Finland.
Of the Nordic countries, Finland and Sweden do not belong to any military alliance. However, it is likely that NATO would support both nations as much as 
as possible because of their strategic position.  Sweden would probably also 
join the war against FUSSR when it starts since it is unlikely that the Red army would stop at Swedish eastern border.

THE BATTLEFIELD

The Baltic scenario GIULMS01 is more like a second episode to this one in 
that the FUSSR has the air superiority over Lapland and most of the action has 
moved further south.  Here, the Red side tries to reach the first three 
aforementioned strategic goals by heavily attacking the forward bases 
and breaking out into the Baltic. 
The game environment is not quite what it is in real life. Finnish coastline is full of little islands giving cover for small attack craft in much the same extent as the Norwegian fjords. The Finnish and Swedish coast artillery also presents a threat against opposing surface vessels.
The Finnish air force relies greatly on temporary airfields made of short
highway strips and large numbers of air surveillance radars mounted on 
APC's.  These are harder to destroy than regular bases.

BLUE FORCES

The scenario editor does not provide the plane and ship types used in Sweden and Norway. Each type has been replaced by the best possible match of those available. (Also the base names might look rather strange).
The Finnish navy currently has about ten missile boats, six of which are modern types and four of modified Soviet Osa class.  Four of the modern units are the Finnish-built Helsinki class carrying up to 8 RBS-15SF SSM's.  There are also two brand new Rauma class vessels and two others are under construction. Finally, there are two light frigates that would most probably be used as the centerpiece of a missile boat group.  In the game the Soviet Nanuchka III class boats represent the Helsinki class missile boats; the Norwegian 
Hauk class represents the older Tuima class boats; and the Oslo class represents the light frigates (though Oslo has better armament).
For the air force it is assumed that Finns have already gotten the
new F/A-18C Hornets, though the planes here do not have the advanced
weaponry as the Finns will have in a few years. Finland also has several
Hawk trainers and Lightnings to represent the older SAAB J-35 Draken and 
MiG-21bis aircraft.
The Swedish navy has use of only one missile boat group and one submarine.  The Swedish air force's SAAB J-37 Viggens are replaced by Phantoms and their J-35 Drakens by Lightnings.  The number of available Swedish units does not match the total number, because Sweden is assumed to have interests to protect in the southern Baltic area.

RED FORCES

The Red forces consist of units that could be expected to be in the area in
case of war.  Remember that there is a much stronger need of first line fighters in the southern Europe so the northern forces consist mostly of the older types.  The Red side would, however, probably protect their major cities with newer aircraft.  Most of the Red bombers would be pounding NATO forces in the northern Atlantic.
The FUSSR Baltic navy consists of some older cruisers and about dozen destroyers and frigates.  There are also several missile boats and about ten Kilo class submarines along with some older type subs. In this scenario these forces are partly assigned to protect the FUSSR interests in the northern Baltic.

GAME STATISTICS AND REQUIREMENTS

The scenario was made using scenario editor 1.0 and tested with Harpoon 
Version 1.2.  The maximum memory requirement is 528kB.  The game might be
rather slow in AT and 386sx type machines, but in the beginning no time compression would be needed anyway.
                               

All comments, questions and suggestions are appreciated.

Jouni Marttila (jmarttila@finabo.abo.fi)


Oh, what's Mannerheim's Cross?  It is the highest military award of the
Finnish armed forces and given to those who have shown extreme courage in 
combat.

Downloaded from Firedrake.org, filename GIUKJM03.
