Historical Research Designing a game based on historical events can have its challenges. When I was assist- ing Lee Brimmicombe-Wood on researching Downtown, Air War over Hanoi, 1965-1972 (GMT Games LLC, 2004), I was able to ac- cess a lot of historical documents available on the Vietnam Air War which were declassified but not readily available to the general public until just recently. Those documents went a long way to making Downtown such a his- torically and tactically accurate simulation of the air combat over North Vietnam. As time goes by, more accurate information is released about past conflicts like the Vietnam War and with Elusive Victory, the same is true for the Middle East conflicts of the 60's and 70's. Information on the Israeli Air Force in years past had been very hard to find and laden with propaganda which tended to distort some of the validity of the information. In recent years however, authors such as Shlomo Aloni have done remarkable research and presented information that was never readily available to the Western reader. His current book The June 1967 Six-Day War Volume A - Operation Focus (IsraDecal Publications) has a plethora of detailed information that a game designer drools over (OK — maybe I was the one drool- ing over it but players and scenario designers will enjoy the book). The information and mission details in this book are amazing. It has detailed pictures of most of the airbases depicted in Elusive Victory as well as mission details for all sorties flown during Operation Focus, the Israelis pre-emptive strike of June 5, 1967 depicted in the game as scenario EV1. I received my copy of the book as Elusive Victory was in final production so some of the new information I have found in this book is presented here in C3i as Advanced or Option- al Rules to enhance player's enjoyment and add to their available TTPs (Tactics, Tech- niques and Procedures) in Air Force lingo. Downtown and Elusive Victory are games that can be easily modified and enhanced with minimal impact to the overall game mechan- ics. The games in and of themselves are toolkits and as more research becomes avail- able, especially in future volumes from Shlomo Aloni, I hope to continue to enhance and make Elusive Victory the most detailed and fun simulation of a fascinating albeit deadly period of air warfare in the 20th century. Future issues of C3i Magazine will see new aircraft and scenarios developed for Elusive Victory. New aircraft that are in produc- tion and testing are Tu-16 Badger, B-377 Stratocruiser, Su-15 Flagon, S-58 and Mi-8 Helos as well as a MiG-25 Recon variant. Longterm goals are to add Kfir, F-15 and MiG-23 to the countermix as well. New scenarios will be developed to support these planes or ways to modify existing scenarios to fit them in. Also in the works is a project to create a campaign scenario that portrays all five waves of Operation Focus besides just the current two waves portrayed in EV1 with thoughts on making it playable solitaire. C3i Magazine 23 Page 44 2009 New Advanced and Optional Rules These new advanced and optional rules can be selected by mutual consent of both players. The recommended rule on Air-to-Air Loadout for Mirage aircraft should be used as a standard rule. 10.22 MiG-21MF Search Radar (Optional Rule) Design Note: Elusive Victory does not currently have a RHM missile available for use with the MiG-21MF but the aircraft did have a search radar; RP-22 Sapfir (NATO Jaybird). The EAF player makes an additional detection roll for each IAF flight within 5 hexes and the forward arc of a non-disordered MiG-21MF flight. Choose an eligible EAF flight to make the search attempt. Roll on the Radar column and apply a -2 modifier if the target is 4-5 hexes away. Make only one radar search attempt per IAF flight in each Detection Phase regardless of the number of MiG-21MF flights eligible to search. If Lookdown applies [10.23], a MiG- 21MF flight cannot radar search. 11.12 Air-to-Air Loadout (Recommended Rule) Design Note: From 1967 to 1969, the Israelis had limited supplies of air-to-air missiles for their Mirage fleet and even used captured Atolls to supplement their supply. When a Mirage IIICJ flight is allocated for a CAP task then roll 1D10 on the following table for appropriate missile loadout
Transcript
Historical ResearchDesigning a game based on historical events
can have its challenges. When I was assist-ing Lee Brimmicombe-Wood on researchingDowntown, Air War over Hanoi, 1965-1972(GMT Games LLC, 2004), I was able to ac-cess a lot of historical documents available onthe Vietnam Air War which were declassifiedbut not readily available to the general publicuntil just recently. Those documents went along way to making Downtown such a his-torically and tactically accurate simulation ofthe air combat over North Vietnam. As timegoes by, more accurate information is releasedabout past conflicts like the Vietnam War andwith Elusive Victory, the same is true for theMiddle East conflicts of the 60's and 70's.Information on the Israeli Air Force in yearspast had been very hard to find and laden withpropaganda which tended to distort someof the validity of the information. In recentyears however, authors such as Shlomo Alonihave done remarkable research and presentedinformation that was never readily availableto the Western reader. His current book TheJune 1967 Six-Day War Volume A - OperationFocus (IsraDecal Publications) has a plethoraof detailed information that a game designerdrools over (OK — maybe I was the one drool-ing over it but players and scenario designerswill enjoy the book). The information andmission details in this book are amazing. Ithas detailed pictures of most of the airbasesdepicted in Elusive Victory as well as missiondetails for all sorties flown during Operation
Focus, the Israelis pre-emptive strike of June5, 1967 depicted in the game as scenario EV1.I received my copy of the book as Elusive
Victory was in final production so some of thenew information I have found in this book ispresented here in C3i as Advanced or Option-al Rules to enhance player's enjoyment andadd to their available TTPs (Tactics, Tech-niques and Procedures) in Air Force lingo.
Downtown and Elusive Victory are gamesthat can be easily modified and enhanced withminimal impact to the overall game mechan-ics. The games in and of themselves aretoolkits and as more research becomes avail-able, especially in future volumes from ShlomoAloni, I hope to continue to enhance andmake Elusive Victory the most detailed andfun simulation of a fascinating albeit deadlyperiod of air warfare in the 20th century.Future issues of C3i Magazine will see newaircraft and scenarios developed for Elusive
Victory. New aircraft that are in produc-tion and testing are Tu-16 Badger, B-377Stratocruiser, Su-15 Flagon, S-58 and Mi-8Helos as well as a MiG-25 Recon variant.Longterm goals are to add Kfir, F-15 andMiG-23 to the countermix as well. Newscenarios will be developed to support theseplanes or ways to modify existing scenariosto fit them in. Also in the works is a projectto create a campaign scenario that portraysall five waves of Operation Focus besides justthe current two waves portrayed in EV1 withthoughts on making it playable solitaire.
C3i Magazine 23 Page 44 2009
New Advanced and Optional Rules
These new advanced and optional rulescan be selected by mutual consent of bothplayers. The recommended rule on Air-to-AirLoadout for Mirage aircraft should be used asa standard rule.
10.22 MiG-21MF Search Radar(Optional Rule)
Design Note: Elusive Victory does not currentlyhave a RHM missile available for use with the
MiG-21MF but the aircraft did have a searchradar; RP-22 Sapfir (NATO Jaybird).
The EAF player makes an additionaldetection roll for each IAF flight within 5hexes and the forward arc of a non-disorderedMiG-21MF flight. Choose an eligible EAFflight to make the search attempt. Roll onthe Radar column and apply a -2 modifier ifthe target is 4-5 hexes away. Make only oneradar search attempt per IAF flight in eachDetection Phase regardless of the number ofMiG-21MF flights eligible to search.
If Lookdown applies [10.23], a MiG-21MF flight cannot radar search.
11.12 Air-to-Air Loadout(Recommended Rule)
Design Note: From 1967 to 1969, the Israelishad limited supplies of air-to-air missiles for their
Mirage fleet and even used captured Atolls tosupplement their supply.
When a Mirage IIICJ flight is allocatedfor a CAP task then roll 1D10 on thefollowing table for appropriate missile loadout
availability. See Scenario SSRs for availableIRM type for scenario. This rule is onlyapplicable for scenarios set in 1967 thru1969. From 1970 on, Mirage has fullload of available IRM types and Guns.
Errata: Mirages only carried a singleMatra 530 RI-IM so when taking a BVR shotor combat with the Matra 530 as the onlyweapon, the number of shots cannot exceedthe number of undamaged aircraft in a flight.This can occur when 1 or 2 aircraft take BVRshots and roll 3 shots or higher or in therare cases of normal air-to-air combat withno other weapon left other than Matra 530RHM. Disregard all shots greater than thenumber of aircraft in a flight.
differences of selected weapon's engagement ranges
in an air-to-air engagement can be modeled
with a bit more fidelity for those players wanting
an additional layer of chrome.
f. The attacker may not initiate an engage-ment at a range of one hex if the only available
weapon is guns. In this case, the attacker mustinitiate engagement in the same hex as thedefender. See Advanced Rule — [11.33] ShotResolution Restriction for more details. Bothrules should be used together.
11.33 Shot Resolution Restriction(Advanced Rule)
Design Note: While the air-to-air combat en-
gagement rules provide a very good approxima-
tion of air combat maneuvering at this scale, the
differences of selected weapon's engagement ranges
in an air-to-air engagement can be modeled with
a bit more fidelity for those players wanting an
additional layer of chrome.
If the attacker initiated air-to-air combatat a range of one hex then any shots resolvedmust use IRM or RHM as the selectedweapon for combat value modifiers but thegun may be used to gain the +1 additionalundepleted weapon modifier. If the attackerinitiated air-to-air combat in the same hex asthe defender then any available weapon typecan be selected as per normal rules.
In any scenario where there are potentialArmor (Arm) targets [27.1, 27.2], the playermay substitute anti-tank rockets for normal
rocket pods. Anti-tank rocket pods doublethe attack strength of any attacks againstarmored vehicles but halve the attack strengthagainst all other targets.
17.64 Long Delay Fuse Bombs(Advanced Rule)
Design Note: Both the Israelis and Egyptians
employed bombs with long delay fuses to disrupt
and hinder air operations and repair crews at-
tempting to repair damage to an airfield.
A player may substitute long delay fusebombs in any one flight that is authorized tocarry runway dibber bombs. The long delayfuse bombs are taken instead of the runwaydibber bombs. Aircraft laden with long delayfuse bombs must select as its target an enemyairfield's runway. If the Air-to-Ground attackresult is Slight Damage then the airfield mayremain Open [9.11] but that airfield is nowsubject to a potential explosion whenever aready flight attempts to takeoff or land at thatairfield.
(This is an exception to 19.111 where anairfield is closed on a result of Slight Damage orhigher and is a tradeofffrom having the airfieldclosed by direct damage or allowing the opportu-nity for more damage to future operations at thatairfield).
When a flight is landing or taking offfrom that airfield roll for a possible attack onthe Heavy column of the AAA table [14.31]using Deck altitude to calculate DR. Nomodifiers apply. Resolve any damage resultsnormally.
19.44 "Ofra" Internal Comm Jammer(Advanced Rule)The "Ofra" Internal Comm Jammer (ICJ)
system was installed on Super Mysteres andVautours to provide additional protectionagainst enemy aircraft attacks. IAF playermay designate one flight of Super Mysteres orVautours per raid to have this system installed.When an enemy flight attempts to engage aflight equipped with the "Ofra" ICJ they mustroll 1D10 prior to rolling to engage. On aresult of 1-2, Delayed Attack Orders randomevent affects the engaging enemy flight andthat flight only. On a result of 3-7, the engag-ing flight may roll for engagement normallywith a -2 DRM. On a result of 8-10, engag-ing flight rolls normally with no DRM.
21.0 Random Events (Dust Devil Result(Optional Effect))If the Dust Devil result is rolled, the
selected player may optionally place the Hazecounter on an enemy airfield to Close [9.11]that airfield until the Haze result is removed.The Haze does not affect any Urban or Waterhexes surrounding the airfield. If rolled again,the Haze is removed from the map as per therandom event rules.
Design Note: The Israelis were very diligent intheir efforts to photograph and document theirbombing attacks. While they had a small special-ized fleet of Recon capable aircraft, they installeda number of Battle Damage Assessment rearfacing camera mounts on their attack aircraft tofilm bombing runs. These cameras were normallyallocated to the number four aircraft in the forma-tion that would film the attack results as theywere the last plane on target.
The IAF player may add a Battle Dam-age Assessment Camera to the last Bomb orStrike/CAP flight assigned to attack a target.
The camera is loaded on the last aircraft in theflight and allows for immediate recon of thetarget (i.e., no need to wait five game turns[24.1]). BDA is considered complete if theequipped aircraft survives the mission. Theflight equipped with the camera must useLevel or Dive Bombing Profile [17.31, 17.32].
28.4 Flight Quality Generation(Optional Rule)Players may as an optional rule roll their
aggression values prior to the game and assignthem as they see fit based on what they roll.
This will give players more control over wheretheir good pilots go versus the random natureof rolling for each flight either before the mis-sion or once needed (usually when air-to-airengagement is attempted). You may only as-sign aggression values between flights havingthe same training level.
Example: As the IAF player you have 4Mirage flights at ACE training level and 4 SuperMystere flights at VET training level The IAFplayer will roll 4 times at ACE for the 4 Mirageflights and 4 times on VET level for the 4 Mys-tereflights and may assign the ratings between allthe flights of each training level.
Two New Elusive Victory Scenarios
EV(C3i#1) (YK/R):Full House Aces Over F-4s
Scenario EV(C3i#1): Scenario by Terry SimoBackground
The US Navy had two Carrier BattleGroups stationed in the Mediterraneanduring the Yom Kippur/Ramadan War in1973. The USS Independence (CV-62) andthe USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV -42)were positioned to observe and monitor the
fighting as well as to provide air cover for USmilitary aid flights to Israel. However, it isquite possible that if events had turned outdifferently, the Israelis may have needed tocall on the United States to provide combatsupport to their forces in the Sinai. Thisscenario represents a hypothetical situationwhere the USN sends in two Alpha Strikes totake out Egyptian airbases to relieve pressureon the Israelis. The famous VF-41 Black Acessquadron of carrier air wing CVW-6 onboardCV-42 joins the fray hunting for MiGs.
TargetsThe USN player rolls until two different
targets are selected.
Scenario Conditions
Date: 14 October 1973 Time of Day: 15:15
Detection Level: USN: A EAF: B GCI Level: USN: 8 EAF: 8 Weather: Clear
Open EAF Airfields: Abu Suwayr [4427](MiG-21F-13 or PF); Al Mansurah [5514](MiG-21MF); Tanta -Birma [5103](MiG-21PFM/Mirage5DE/Hunter); Quwaysina[4407] (MiG-17); As Salihiyah [5026](Su-7 Recon/Su-20/MiG-21R);Zaqaziq
Az Zagazig (MiG-21F-13)
USN Order of Battle
Air Units: Select from Downtown Order ofBattle, Table B two times, once per Carrier.Dummy Flights: None
Ground Units:AAA Points: None
EWR: NoneGround Forces: None
USN Pilot Quality: F-4J units: Top Gun;Other units: Regular
EAF Order of Battle
Air Units: Select from 73 00B Table D withTanta-Birma and Al Mansurah automaticallygetting a 2nd CAP available with noDR required
Dummy Flights: 2Ground Units:
SAM Battalions: 24 (set up 18 located)(16xSA-2/6xSA-3/2xSA-6) (6 SA-2Battalions are D/F models)
1) The EAF player rolls on Early WarningTable. Only the North map is in play.
2) Scenario requires Downtown for applicablecharts, counters, and rules for USN.
3) Airbase Defense Zone SAM set uprules are in effect.
4) SAM Box Defense Zone active fromhexes 4027 to 5227 to 5214 to 4014: theEAF player must set up 6x SA-2, 3x SA-3,and 2x SA-6 non-dummy SAMs withinthe SAM box.
5) The EAF player may designate 1 x MiG-21flight at Al Mansurah as a No. 26 SqnBlack Raven flight with Veteran quality.
6) USN flights must enter and exit on anyNorth map border hex.
7) USN flights may use EOGB ordnance(Walleye) [17.35].
8) USN flights may use Standard and ShrikeARMs. Both are not effective against SA-6.
EV(C3i#2) (YK/R): Full Court PressScenarioEV(C3i#2):ScenariobyTerrySimoBackground
ThefirstdaystrikesbytheUSNshutdownAlMansurah airfield and took pressure off thebattered Israeli forces in the Sinai. Israel hasbeen able to regroup and has launched majorstrikesalong theSuezCanalwhile theUSN
USS Independence (CV-62) and the FranklinD. Roosevelt (CV-42) continue ch AlphaStrikes targeting Egyptian ds. Thistime, the USN is striking r intoEgyptian territory while the 's handle thearea around the Suez , in particular the
Egyptian bridgehead a the Chinese Farm.
If the fighting continuestheSovietshavedeclaredthattheywill start supporting theEgyptianswithrat forces. The race is on to win the war fore
the conflict escalates. (NOTE:Scenario
maybeplayed asa3-player
game witheachplayer takingadifferentnation'sforcesor2-player withone playerfor USN/IAF andone player for EAF)
Scenario Conditions Date: 15 October 1973 Time of Day: 09:00 Detection Level: USN/IAF: A EAF: B GCI Level: USN: 8 IAF: 7 EAF: 8 Weather: Clear
Open EAF Airfields: Cairo West [3103](MiG-21F-13/Su-7/Su-20); Abu Suwayr[4427] (MiG-21F-13 or PF); Inshas [3714](MiG-21MF/MiG-17); Kibrit [3536] (MiG-17); Beni Suef [0604] (MiG-21MF); Tanta-Birma [5103] (MiG-21PFM/Mirage5DE/Hunter); Quwaysina [4407] (MiG-17);
Qaha [3509] (MiG-17); As Salihiyah [5026](Su-7 Recon/Su-20/MiG-21R); Wadi AlJandal [2922] (MiG-17); Hulwan [2312](MiG-21F-13/MiG-17/IL-28); Almaza[3012] (MiG-21F-13); Bilbays [3917] (MiG-21F-13/IVEG-17/Su-71L-29); Az Zaqaziq(MiG-21F-13)
USN Order of BattleAir Units
Select from Downtown Order of Battle,Table B two times, once per Carrier.Dummy Flights: 1
USN Pilot Quality: F-4J units: Top Gun;Other units: Regular
IAF Order of BattleAir UnitsSelect from 73 OOB twice from Table B,
and once from Table CDummy Flights: 1
Ground Units:AAA Points: 18 [see 14.11]
Hawk Battalions (5) [1843, 4049 (5537 or5139), (3742 or 2943 or 3443), 4339]
EWR: 1Ground Forces: as per target array
IAF Pilot Quality: Mirage III/Nesher units:Ace; Other units: Veteran
EAF Order of BattleAir UnitsSelect from 73 OOB: once from Table D,
and twice from Table E
Dummy Flights: 1Ground Units
SAM Battalions: 40 (set up 26 located)(24xSA-2/10xSA-3/6xSA-6) (10 SA-2Battalions are D/F models)
Dummy SAMs: 10EVVR: 2
AAA Points: 40 [see 14.11]
Fire Can: 6Gun Dish: 5 (place stacked with any
ground unit counter [see 14.51])
Ground Forces: as per target arrayEAF Pilot Quality: No.26 Sqn MiG-21 andMirage/Hunter Veteran; Other units: Regular
Scenario Special Rules
1) The EAF player rolls on EarlyWarning Table. Both maps are in play.
2) Scenario requiresDowntown forapplicablecharts, counters and rules for USN.
3) Airbase Defense Zone SAM and CairoDefense Zone set up rules are in effect.
4) SAM Box Defense Zone active from hexes4027 to 5227 to 5214 to 4014: the EAFplayer must set up 10x SA-2, 5x SA-3,and 3x SA-6 non-dummy SAMs withinthe SAM box.
5) The EAF playermay designate 1x MiG-21flight as a No. 26 Sqn Black Raven flightwith Veteran quality.
6) USN flightsmust enterandexit on anyNorth map border hex.
7) USN/IAF flights may use EOGB ordnance(Walleye) [17.35].
8) USN flights may use Standard and ShrikeARMs. Both are not effective against SA-6.
9) Roll D10 for Contrast Conditions:1-7 Good Contrast, 8-10 Poor Contrast.
10)Players may optionally use full CSARrules from Downtown for USN crew rescue.
11) IAF player is considered scenario defenderand chooses whether to move first or not.USN/EAF player roll 1D10 each turn tosee which side is second or third. Highroll is second.
Victory Conditions
Standard Victory conditions apply [28.8].Egyptian player gains 2VP extra for everyUSN pilot/crewmember captured.
