Red Pill: Wargame of air & naval military operations (strategic operational & tactical) by Francisco Azevedo

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

What is Red Pill? Source: http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=1101 Project: Red Pill (working title) is a comprehensive wargame of air & naval (and limited ground) military operations, covering scenarios of both total-war and low-intensity/other-than-war situations. The scale is primarily tactical/operational, although strategicscale operations are also possible. Current status The

Red

Pill

currently

under

intense

development. Internal beta-testing has already commenced and at least one public beta will follow. Check the

official

Red

Pill

forum frequently

for

updates. Release date? When Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ready (TM). Interestingly though, in the running poll in the RP forum related to this, the vast majority encourages a slow, careful development & release path.

Update: Red Pill developers interview at Real and Simulated wars.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Red Pill – First screenshots JANUARY 5, 2010 · POSTED IN THE RED PILL

Here is the first batch of screenshots from The Red Pill, the new air/naval wargame under development. The tester who took the shots describes the depicted scenario: The Soviets decide to intercept a spying RC-135 in the Baltic. The RC-135 is escorted by four German F-4Fs and four Danish F-16As, and is intercepted by eight MiG-23Ms and six Su-15TMs. The MiG-23Ms pave the way breaking through the snooper’s escort while a pair of Su-15TMs manages to get into range for an AA-3 missile salvo.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Red Pill Screenshots #2 JANUARY 15, 2010 · POSTED IN THE RED PILL

Two more screenshots from the Red Pill project are now available, each showcasing different aspects of this air/naval wargame (click pics for full-size view):

Here we see how a single A. Burke-class destroyer positioned in the Arabian Sea is able to threaten a wide range of Iranian targets with its Tomahawk cruise missiles (dark red range ring). The map view is deliberately zoomed out to display the globe. Early on in the beginning of development, it was decided to use a Google Earth-style, virtual globe interface for the Red Pill. According to the developers it was a difficult technical choice, but a worthwhile one because it solves several longstanding issues present in other similar wargames: * No map distortions (squatted range rings etc.) at all, since the view is ―natural‖: the player observes the theater from an overhead satellite-like viewpoint. * It is possible to have truly global-scale scenarios without any map restrictions. For example, in the above picture there is concurrently a carrier battlegroup transiting the entire Pacific ocean, hidden of course from view. * Scenario authors can easily create polar-centric scenarios. The North Pole area in particular is essential for any serious Cold War Gone Nuclear scenario (think ―WarGames‖), and the gradual opening of sea lanes in the Arctic is already making this area one of the strategically ―hottest‖ places in the forthcoming decades.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

In addition, the virtual globe interface supports an arbitrary number of map layers (shown here is NASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Blue Marble) for things like land elevation, water depth, weather data etc. so that players and scenario authors alike can customize their map preferences to the situation at hand. Moreover, additional custom images can be overlaid on any portion of the map for extra fidelity if required.

Here an F-15E Strike Eagle gets down and dirty, following a low-altitude terrain-masking course around the Zagros mountains in the Iranian coast en route to attack a SA-2 site. Here we are using the terrain-relief map layer in order to clearly depict terrain elevations and exploit them for planning the penetration ingress. By default, the Red Pill uses terrain & bathymetry data of vastly higher detail than any previous similar wargames. Furthermore, the effects of terrain are significantly more influential in everything from unit navigation to physics to weapon & sensor functions to AI etc. For example, sensors are affected not only by line-of-sight (which is again far more detailed than any past implementation) but also by the different clutter coefficients of the land & sea environment. Trying to pick out a surface target upon a calm sea is one thing; detecting the very same target amidst stormy waves is tougher, and overland detection is another ball game altogether. In another example, line-of-sight blockage can not only prevent broad search detection but also ruin an ongoing engagement; the real-world tactic of detecting an incoming SAM and ducking behind a ridge to break lock is perfectly doable in RP. The Red Pillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s terrain can be your best ally if you use it wisely - or your worst enemy if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Red Pill screenshots #3: Cans Only – Part I JANUARY 31, 2010 · POSTED IN THE RED PILL

A new series of screenshots from The Red Pill, the new air/naval wargame under development at Warfare Sims, have been released from the internal testing team along with commentary. The screenshots were taken while testing out a new scenario called ―Cans Only‖. From the scenario description: This is a simple ASuW-centered scenario addressing a hypothetical surface engagement exercise in the western Pacific in the summer of 2010. Two USN surface action groups, one of them including the amphibious ship USS Essex, must reach the Tokyo-Yukosuka area. Two JMSDF taskgroups act as OPFOR and must prevent them from doing so. There is no land-based air support or submarines; both sides must make do with their surface ships and what they can carry onboard. The Japanese have an advantage in numbers, but the US has more Aegis ships and lots more helicopters. The setup is 2-on-2 groups so there are plenty of decisions to make! First two screens are the starting setups of each side (click for full size). Notice that, even though the tactical display is in group-mode, by selecting a group we can see its member units and their weapon/sensor range rings dimmed out. This is a feature long (more than a decade long!) requested by the air/naval wargaming community, and Red Pill is the first to deliver on it.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

The Japanese player opens the OOB window to get a better feel of the composition & disposition of his assets. By click-selecting any unit in the OOB window, the map centers and focuses on that unit. This makes it easy to find a desired unit to control without having to remember where it is located. The OOB window can also list the units grouped by the mission to which they are assigned.

The Japanese player has laid out a patrol area for his helicopters (marked by reference points 104 to 106). Patrols in areas demarcated by reference points are not a new idea in air/naval wargames, but Red Pill adds some important new features:



Any reference point can be anchored to any map unit (friendly or otherwise) and maintain a constant range & bearing from it. This allows the creation of truly ―mobile‖ patrol areas/screens, exclusion zones, threat zones etc. In this case, the JMSDF player has anchored the patrol area’s reference points to the center of his northern taskgroup, so whichever way the group moves, the patrol area will automatically adjust its location relative to it.



Units assigned to such mobile patrol areas are not restricted to the group’s own assets but may include any friendly unit. If the JMSDF player had available P-3s in any nearby airbase, for example, he could have assigned them to the same patrol area as the helicopters of his surface group.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

The helicopter patrol is beginning to bear results. A string of helicopter contacts are passively detected by the ESM gear on the Japanese helicopters and surface ships. The USN player has been a bit careless in organizing his own helo patrols and may unknowingly give his JMSDF adversary a hint about the location of at least some of his ships.

The USN player suspects he may be already detected and decides to do a weapons check on one of his prime combatants, the cruiser Port Royal. Plenty of firepower (including a bunch of SM-3s) and all systems operational. Whatever comes, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ready.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Red Pill screenshots #4: Cans Only – Part II FEBRUARY 14, 2010 · POSTED IN THE RED PILL

Previously on “Cans Only – Part I”…

It’s a busy day for the flight deck crew of the Essex. Numerous helicopters are returning from the ASuW patrol and they must be turned around and launch again to continue their task.

Just as the JMSDF player before him, the USN commander begins to make guesses on the enemy fleet dispositions based on the early passive contacts he has from the Japanese helicopters. The Japanese commander has been more careful in spreading his patrols so there is no obvious point of origin/convergence.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

The USN commander decides on a tactical gamble: The frigate Reuben James will break off from the southern task force and sprint forward to act as an AAW picket, ASuW scout and hopefully a tempting lure for the adversary to show his hand. To prevent its early identification from its full radar emissions, only a select couple of widely-used radars will be active; the rest of the sensors will be passive or switched off.

Contact! One of the US Seahawks has stumbled upon one of the two Japanese groups. They are not quite were the USN commander expected them, so he will have to adjust his plans.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

The JMSDF commander is not sitting idle either. One of his helicopters has spotted one of the American groups too, probably the northernmost one judging from its location. He doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know if the Essex (the primary objective asset for both sides) is in this group or not, so he cannot yet commit a decisive force to this discovery yet. He does, however, re-orient his northern group to intercept these contacts and orders additional recon sorties by the available helicopters.

The Americans donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like being under watch, and show it: A number of SAMs greet any Japanese helicopter that wanders too close, with mixed results.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

The JMSDF helicopters have taken severe losses while trying to identify the American ships, but their sacrifice has paid off. The Japanese commander has confirmed that the Essex is indeed amongst the detected ships and directs his nothern group to strike. As the southern group is too far to assist soon, this will be a solo effort. The northern group is about to coordinate an all-out SSM strike on the Essex group, with the Essex herself being the primary objective. The missiles are allocated and launched.

The US group has been monitoring the incoming Japanese ships and is in no way surprised by the attack. As soon as the incoming wave of SSMs is detected, the awesome power of Aegis kicks in: Not even a single antiship missile gets through! (The red lines are the terminal SARH illumination for the SM-2 missiles)

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

The US commander responds in kind, with a full SSM salvo of his own. The Japanese AAW is far less robust (only a single Aegis destroyer, and the ships are more dispersed). As a result, some of the missiles get through the defensive SAM fire and are intercepted by the terminal defences, decoyed/jammed or even manage to hit their targets as in this case. The destroyer Sazanami has taken serious damage (notice the damage report messages on the message log) and has to withdraw from the assault.

The opposing ships are now close enough to begin using their surplus SAMs in an antiship role. Neither side has many hits, however, and those who do hit cause little damage.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

The Japanese ships have pressed on towards the Essex group despite the failure of their SSM attack and the losses suffered from the US counter-attack, hoping to get within gun range where their numerical superiority and heavy gun armament can make a difference. Now they get their chance! As most of the gun systems on both side’s ships are similar in caliber & range (mostly 76 & 127mm guns), they open fire almost simultaneously. The destroyers Shimakaze and Stethem engage in a vicious gunfight while the others ships are closing in. (Note: The Red Pill uses an advanced CEP-based accuracy model for all anti-surface weapons – guns, bombs, missiles, rockets etc. In other similar sims, a given gun or missile has the same chance of hitting a high-speed Boghammar or a lumbering aircraft carrier – not so in RP. The CEP-based model takes into account a weapon’s nominal CEP and combines it with factors such as the shelling/bombing accuracy of the firing platform, the firing range, sea state (in the case of ship guns), target evasion etc. in order to produce an ―actual CEP‖ value, which is then compared with the physical dimensions of the target to determine if a direct hit was made or not. If the target is a land facility or mobile unit, even near-misses mean that the weapon will impact the ground and can cause severe damage from proximity blast, fragments etc.)

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

The Stethem has taken a fearful pounding from Shimakazeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guns. Although hull integrity is still in relatively good shape, many of its weapons, sensors and other subcomponents have been damaged or destroyed by the relentless shelling (primarily due to the fragmentation effects), including the powerplant. It has to withdraw towards the Essex and out of gun range in order to retain some reserve combat capability. The Shiloh has been ordered to assist and is sprinting southbound but she may well be too late.

Chokai and Shiloh (and Mustin shortly afterwards) have been drawn into Shimakaze & Stethemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gunfight, all ships shooting like there is no tomorrow. All participants receive tremendous damage from shell fire and will have to break off or risk being left dead in the water. The USN player plots a new northwestern course for the

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Essex in order to have it steer clear of the engagement and hopefully sneak around the Japanese group before they have a chance to break from the gunfight to intercept her. (If the Essex reaches the Tokyo area the US side wins regardless of losses).

All of the ships that engaged in the gunfight have been forced to withdraw due to heavy damage to their weapons or powerplants. Mustin and Shiloh are supposed to screen the Essex on her northwestern course but their battle damage has made them too slow to keep up, so the USN player just charges the Essex ahead alone and hopes for the best. Unfortunately for him, the JMSDF commander has deliberately kept an ace: the destroyer Yudachi was held back from the gunfight and now has a clear shot at intercepting the Essex. That it does, showering her with shells from her fast-firing 76mm guns. (Here again the CEP-based anti-surface model favors the Japanese player: The Essex is much easier to hit than the US destroyers due to her sheer size, and the accurate, rapid-fire 76mm guns are having a field day.) ———— Shortly after the last screenshot was taken, one of Yudachi’s 76mm shells wrecked the Essex’s powerplant and stole any hope of her reaching Tokyo. The battle was over, with the JMSDF side winning (even though no single ship was actually sunk). Overall impressions of the scenario and the simulation were very positive. Some previously undiscovered bugs and logic flaws were encountered during play; these were forwarded to the dev team and fixed (in two cases, before the end of the game). There was (and is) some intense debate as to whether individual captains should be given authority to use their SAMs in the anti-surface role, given that they are much less efficient in this domain and may leave the ships vulnerable to air/missile attacks afterwards. This will probably remain a hot topic for discussion.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Red Pill screenshots #5: Kola nuclear strike! MARCH 26, 2010 · POSTED IN THE RED PILL

The undisputed master of epic WW3 scenarios, Ragnar Emsoy is at it again. As part of his beta-testing of Red Pill, he has been porting over some of his classic H3 creations and running them on the new air/naval wargame. Following is his photo-AAR of one such scenario, featuring a nuclear strike on the Kola Peninsula. Editor’s comments in Italic! ———————————————————————– 23th October 1985: The war has not gone well for the Soviets. After five weeks of fighting, a stalemate had ensued on the Central Front. The tables were turning and NATO was able to launch its first major counteroffensive. Although facing stiff opposition, once the offensive gathered momentum, NATO troops advanced up to 20 kilometers per day in some areas. The Soviets, with the near collapse of their military logistical effort and with their frontline ammo stocks running low, had no choice but to give ground and fall back. There has been a considerable amount of war termination negotiations in the last few days. But a settlement to the war seems virtually impossible to attain. It is unthinkable for the Soviets to give up what they have fought so hard for, and they insist on a cease-fire that recognizes their territorial gains. NATO, on the other hand, is unwilling to recognize any Soviet gains and calls for a return to status quo ante bellum. The Soviets are strongly seeking a decisive military and political result before the industrial might of the West can be mobilized. However, having failed to destroy NATO in a short war, the Soviets are unlikely to regain a conventional military advantage. Facing total defeat in the Central European theater, the Soviets would eventually be forced to choose between surrender and escalation. To retrieve the losing situation, a decision was made to launch a limited nuclear and chemical attack on NATO front-line units. 44 missile-delivered 520kT nuclear warheads and a dozen persistent chemical agent warheads were employed against NATO troops in the most hard-pressed areas. The NATO response was swift. 49 nuclear warheads were detonated over Soviet frontline units, four army garrisons, five air bases and two rail yards. NATO announced this as a one-time strike in retaliation for the Soviet attack. The Soviets struck back with a volley of theater ballistic missiles targeting eight NATO air bases, three ports of disembarkation in the Netherlands and France, as well as key command, control and communication facilities (C3) and several storages for nuclear weapons. NATO responded by employing nuclear warheads against another ten Soviet air bases in Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia, four major naval bases in East Germany and around Kaliningrad, several nuclear weapon storage sites, C3 nodes, and logistical centers. The situation was now fast spiraling out of control, and the war was rapidly escalating towards a strategic-scale exchange. The Soviets issued a warning via the hotline that they would not tolerate further American nuclear

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

aggression on the Central Front, and launched no less than six single-warhead SLBMs at the naval facilities at Norfolk. NATO had a difficult time settling on an appropriate target for retaliation due to the risk of causing a dramatic escalation. But in order to shock the Soviets into realizing the seriousness of NATO’s resolve, it was decided to launch a limited nuclear attack on the Kola Peninsula, the Soviet Union’s most concentrated naval base complex. It is hoped this operation, combined with a threat of general SIOP release, can force the Soviets to return to the negotiating table with a different attitude. The Soviet Union during the last thirty years has transformed the Kola Peninsula into the world’s most complex and concentrated naval base. The majority of the Soviet SSBNs are based here, and the Red Banner Northern Fleet is the Soviet Union’s most formidable fleet. In addition the Kola Peninsula has sixteen major military airfields. Most of them are not used daily but were rapidly made operational in the days leading up to war. It is estimated the Soviets currently have about 350 aircraft of all categories (including multiple regiments of Badger & Backfire bombers) based on the peninsula. The air defense forces consist of MiG-23, MiG-31 and Su15 interceptors supported by ground-based radars and AWACS aircraft. The air defense ground element is made up of about fifty fixed SAM sites and numerous mobile batteries.

The Red Pill guys are known for their thorough research, and the SAM sites in this scenario are placed at their real-life 1985 locations. This includes the six SA-10a Grumble battalions (S-300PT-1 with improved 5V55KD missiles), the first of which went on combat duty in September 1985. All major installations have been implemented on a discrete per-component basis, i.e. all hardened shelters, revetments, tarmacs, ammo bunkers, fuel bunkers, piers, major buildings etc., have true-to-life coordinates. (Ed: This was in fact quite simple to achieve. As previously mentioned, Red Pill’s scenario editor has tools designed specifically to make it easy to construct highly detailed installations with pinpoint accuracy of facilities and then re-use them on different scenarios.)

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

In addition to the bases, the Kola Peninsula hosts a massive Hen House radar for detecting ballistic missiles. It is protected by a triangle of paired SA-2 and SA-3 sites plus a dedicated SA-5 site with three launcher

battalions. The NATO strike is made up of eight B-1B bombers carrying 48 nuclear warheads. Six of the bombers are armed with four B83 megaton-class nuclear bombs each, while another two will be armed with eight SRAM missiles in addition to their four B83 bombs. The SRAMs will be employed against the Murmansk SA-5 site, suspected SA-10 sites and the Kilpyavr PVO interceptor base.

(Ed note: Notice the “Doctrine & ROE” option, a new feature that enables automatically fine-tuning a unit’s behavior depending on its side, mission or group membership. This makes it *a lot* easier to customize the AI’s combat behavior.)

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Soviet MiG-31s from Monchegorsk and MiG-23s from Kilpyavr are rushing to intercept the B-1Bs. The bombersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ALQ-161 defensive suites are working overtime to jam the incoming AA-9 missiles.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

A B-1B eats an AA-9 just as the first SRAM salvo strikes home. Note the shock waves from the nuclear explosions.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

(Ed note: Initially we considered making the blast circles soild white, to match the “WarGames” look. But it was correctly pointed out that this may make it difficult to view & pick out units inside the blast circle, so we opted to represent them as an expanding wave instead.) Another two B-1Bs are downed by volleys of AA-9s, AA-6s and AA-7s. The remaining five B-1Bs press on at max speed!

The B-1B to the west lays down B83s across three submarine bases and an airbase while a second B-1B closes on Polyarny and Severemorsk with a pair of MiG-31 in fast pursuit. All eight nuclear bombs detonate successfully, destroying no fewer than six naval bases and two air bases. Note the detonation delay for the parachute-retarded B83s. (Ed note: New feature here as well – anti-surface weapons in general and nukes in particular can be set to detonate after a short delay in order to allow the unit that dropped them to clear the blast zone.)

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Meanwhile, to the east, the second of the two B-1Bs headed for the Gremikha submarine is intercepted and killed by a pair of MiG-31s.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

A pair of B-1Bs are closing on the Olenegorsk bomber base, the Hen House BMEWR, Monchegorsk PVO interceptor base, and five other airfields in central Kola. The southernmost B-1B is seconds from being hit by no fewer than six SA-2, SA-3 and SA-5s. A total of five out of eight B-1Bs have been lost thus far.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

The Hen House radar dies. The Olenegorsk base, home of a regiment for Tu-16 naval bombers, will take a B83 next (note the CEP calculations!), followed by Monchegorsk and Afrikanda.

Overall and despite the heavy bomber losses, the strike was highly successful: 70% of the strategic bases on Kola were laid to waste. Sixteen SRAMs and fifteen B83s were successfully employed at the cost of 5 B-1B bombers.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Red Pill screenshots #6: Wild weasels and ground-pounders APRIL 29, 2010 Âˇ POSTED IN THE RED PILL

Monday, February 25th 1991, over the Saudi-Iraqi borderâ&#x20AC;Ś The conflict is gradually winding down to its conclusion, the surviving elements of Iraqi forces retreating to pre-war positions without offering any resistance to coalition ground troops. The J-STARS patrol over the border, however, has spotted a previously undetected group of vehicles:

(The green hues are not representative of vegetation; we are using the terrain relief map layer to easily depict terrain elevation. The majority of Iraq is flat desert, hence the green shades. Note the significantly more rugged, mountainous terrain of neighboring Iran.) Zooming in on the detected units we can see that they consist of four 4-vehicle groups (Truck sections? Tank platoons?), a five-vehicle cluster to their north and a single vehicle north of both of them:

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

It is decided to send a two-ship A-10A section to investigate and engage if necessary. While the Hogs are being prepared and launched, an RC-135W snooper orbiting in the region is diverted closer to the investigated area for an ELINT sweep:

The northernmost vehicle seems to be emitting with at least one Long Track radar:

(One of the recent improvements to the ESM model is the addition of “emission lists” on top of displayed contacts, which display all electronic emissions detected from each contact. Each emission fades-out as time passes from its last detection and comes up bright again as it is re-detected. Radars with high scan rates, such as radar illuminators or multi-function radars in tracking or illumination mode, refresh more frequently than search radars. Players familiar with an adversary’s electronic order of battle (EOOB) can thus very quickly evaluate the tactical situation without having to repeatedly use the detailed contact information window.) The presence of the Long Track could potentially mean a higher threat level for the Hogs preparing to enter the unknown area: Such mobile radars are often encountered accompanying mobile SAM units. For this reason it is decided to escort the Hogs with a pair of F-4Gs equipped for defence suppression (SEAD) with HARM missiles. So the Wild Weasels take off, form up and head to the same area, slightly ahead of the Hogs thanks to their greater cruise speed. Not long afterwards the suspicions borne by the Long Track detection are confirmed: the vehicle group sandwiched between the multiple vehicle cluster and the single vehicle is detected to be using a Straight Flush radar: Almost certainly a SA-6 battery.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

The SA-6 is dangerous despite its age, so a preemptive strike with the Weasels’ HARM missiles is quickly agreed upon. The HARM can be launched in 3 modes: 1) Short-range ―snapshot‖ direct attack – e.g. the parent aircraft detects a pop-up mobile SAM at close range, the ARM seeker locks on the emission pre-launch and the weapon is fired directly on that target. 2) Long-range targeted attack, ie. you fire the ARM in bearing-only launch (BOL) mode but specify the emission you want it to lock to. It will home only on this specific emission and nothing else. (Note though that if another SAM unit with the same emission, or even a decoy emitter, is nearby, the ARM may lock on that instead.) 3) Long-range ―freehunt‖ attack, ie. you BOL-fire the ARM without specifying an emission to sniff for, it will simply home on any emission it detects. This is useful for preemptively saturating a suspected high-threat area (conceptually similar to plastering with artillery a hilltop that may or may not host enemy troops). In this occasion the F-4Gs are well out of range for a ―snapshot‖ attack (and all the happier for it – if you are close enough to lock the HARM pre-launch, you are almost certainly in the heart of the enemy SAM’s envelope). On the other hand a freehunt launch is undesirable because of the proximity of other forces in the area and the possible presence of other emitters. So a long-range targeted launch is preffered. Both Wild Weasels tune their HARMs to the Straight Flush radar and cut loose:

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

(Note that the anti-radar missiles display the emitter to which they have been tuned. This provides an immediate display of what is targeted where, which can be useful in massed attacks â&#x20AC;&#x201C; particularly in freehunt launches.) The HARMs quickly cover the distance and begin impacting on the SA-6 battery. The first pair arrives simultaneously and completely annihilates the vehicle group â&#x20AC;&#x201C; unfortunately for them, the battery elements happened to be concentrated more tightly than their norm, so a couple of fragmentation explosions in their midst was all it took.

With the SAM threat neutralized, the road is open for the Hog section. The A-10s close within visual detection distance and identify their targets: They are indeed multiple T-72 platoons, perhaps carefully kept out of action as a last-attempt force. The Hogs divide up the targets among them and begin ripple-firing their Maverick missiles.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

(We previously mentioned aimpoints and their use in Red Pill and this is another example of them in action: Each T-72 platoon is a single ground mobile unit that contains four unique aimpoints (the tanks), each of them with its own weapons, sensors etc. Each successful Maverick hit is likely to destroy a single tank while leaving the rest of its platoon intact. A more powerful weapon of course may produce multiple kills in one go.) Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all over quickly; the Hogs have exhausted their Maverick loadouts and are being recalled before they have a chance to empty their 30mm magazines. In less than a minute they fired 12 Mavericks and several 30mm bursts, destroying 11 tanks in their process. The surviving tanks and the lone Long Track radar will have to wait for the second interdiction wave.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Red Pill screenshots #7 – Bits and pieces JUNE 14, 2010 · POSTED IN THE RED PILL

The summer season is well in effect, and it’s time for some new Red Pill screenshots, showcasing different features & functionality offered by the new air/naval wargame. (Click each for full size)

We have been working lately to incorporate a higher-resolution vector layer for coastlines and borders. This should match the detailed data already offered by our raster layers and allow us significant near-coast refinement for littoral operations such as amphibious landings, mine warfare, piracy & policing operations etc. This is a side-by-side comparison of our current vector set and the proposed new one, using the Hormuz straits as reference.

Adding units to a scenario in legacy air/nav wargames can often be a tedious process because of the time needed to find a specific unit class and the limited copy/move functionality. The ―Add Unit‖ dialog in Red Pill offers a keyword-based filter that allows easy, fast location of the desired unit class. Copying or moving an existing unit is also a single keystroke away.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

This is another huge time-saver for scenario authors. You can import and present geo-referenced images (e.g. from Google Earth as in this case) directly into the game map and use them both for unit construction and normal gameplay alike. In this case we have imported an overhead image of the Natanz nuclear complex and we are using it to construct a highly-authentic representation of the facilities in the area (notice the ―Nuclear Power Station‖ structure already placed). The same method can be used for constructing airbases, port complexes, SAM sites – any multi-unit installation that requires high precision on the placement of its components in order to model faithfully. Once in place, any such installation can be exported to a file and re-used in any other scenario.

This is an example of installation import. Each record can include supplementary information such as creator comments or time-range of validity so that the scenario author can decide whether to use it or not. The installation components are also listed in detail. In this case we have selected 2 airports for import. An installation creator can choose to either store one installation per record (e.g. an airbase) or alternatively include all instances of an installation type in a single record (e.g a country’s entire air-defence network). This allows great flexibility in creating, storing and sharing installations for use in scenarios.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Bushehr airbase in detail. Group-view is selected for the map display, hence the airbase objects appear ―ghosted‖. The unit-status window has a ―Group composition‖ option that presents a summary of the unit types comprising the base (this is also handy for quickly checking e.g. the ship types & numbers in a CVBG or convoy). The ―Air Facilities‖ portion of the Air Ops window presents the state of air operations in the base in a facilitycentric manner. We can examine in detail which aircraft is placed where and what is present status is. We see that an F-4E is using a runway access point (typically a taxiway) to proceed towards one of the runways and take off. Access points such as taxiways (and elevators in aviation ships) are by far the weakest link, and their damage/destruction is the most cost-effective way of disrupting, or even grinding to a halt, ongoing air operations. We will probably need to devote a future article exclusively to this aspect of air ops.

An Australian Adelaide-class (modernized Perry) frigate is facing off two hostile aircraft with her SM-2 missiles. The sensors window is open, displaying the frigate’s sensor status. The dotted red line is the SARH illumination for the SM-2 missiles provided by the frigate’s STIR radar. Notice that only the STIR and the SPS49 search radar are currently active. A frequent answer to the common question ―Why is my [ship/aircraft/SAM site/etc] not shooting at [some target]?‖ is that all engagement/illumination channels are currently in use. In legacy air/nav games this is difficult to demonstrate and visualize. Red Pill makes this easier by clearly displaying which sensors are active and which targets are being illuminated for engagement. In this case, the only available SARH illuminator (the STIR radar) is being used to engage the first aircraft, so the second one cannot yet be engaged.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

A player favorite: buddy-lasing. The AV-8B Harrier on the bottom of the map has launched two AGM-65E laser-guided Maverick missiles and sharply turned southbound to avoid the targetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s terminal defences. A nearby orbiting F-117A takes up the responsibility of providing laser illumination (notice the red line) for the terminal homing phase of the missiles. This is done without any manual user intervention. Scratch one C3 bunker!

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Exclusive Interview with The Red Pill's Dimitris Dranidis

The Red Pill (working title) is a naval/air simulation/war game being developed by a team of independent developers. As judged by the screenshots and after action reports posted atWarfareSims.com, The Red Pill will be packed with realism and playability. This is an interview with one of the team members, Dimitris V. Dranidis. Q: I would like to start by thanking you for taking time to answer these questions. A: And thank you Julio for taking an interest in the project and helping get the word out. Q: The Red Pill has already a sizeable fan base following its development. For the readers of the blog who may be reading about it for the first time, what is The Red Pill? A: Project: Red Pill (working title) is a comprehensive wargame of air & naval (and limited ground) military operations, covering scenarios of both total-war and low-intensity/other-than-war situations. Scale is primarily tactical/operational, although strategic-scale operations are also possible. Q: Who are the people behind this project? A: The core team is 7 or 8 strong, from all over the globe and from many walks of life. We’ve all talked through our experiences with the public face of game development and many on our team wish to remain anonymous, for reasons that range from worries about impact on a day job to just making sure the focus stays on the game and not us. That said, the team members that do want to be known can be fairly easily identified as the ―big mouths‖ in our forum. We are actively looking for other people to stand behind this project as well, and we hope by the end of this we’ll have tons of contributor names to post. As we've often stated, our friends get dibs. Q: There is a strong popular culture reference in your choice of The Red Pill as the name for this war game. How this came to be? A: The name is just a working title. That said, anyone who's seen the first Matrix movie knows what the blue and red pills stand for. We firmly believe that independent projects like Red Pill and the most excellent GCB2 can offer greater freedom of choice and a breath of fresh air to an air/nav wargaming community that had to settle for far too long for a near-monopoly environment. Choice is beneficial for everyone.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Q: Compared to other naval/air war games out there, what makes The Red Pill unique? A: Lots of little things rather than one big feature. Every wargame represents its creator's "worldview" of how various facets of military operations should be optimally modeled and the Red Pill is no exception. This combination of scale and detail/realism has IIRC never been attempted, at least in the public domain. We have taken a very careful look at the existing offerings in our domain to determine what has worked and what hasn't, so in many ways we incorporate lessons learned from those that came before us. We are pretty confident that when people get their hands on Red Pill they will have many moments of "damn, I wish [my previous favorite air/nav wargame] did that too". Q: How is The Red Pill going to be distributed? A: That is a huge question but it is not really on the radar yet. I think in our minds the business stuff is going to come after we have a sim that does all the things we have ever wanted our game to do (and we have a pretty huge wishlist backlog to boot). We've seen a few attempts get burned by thinking too much about the biz and not enough about the product itself so we don't want to go down that road. We have been approached a couple times already and we are considering all options. Q: Judging by the screenshots published at WarfareSims.com, The Red Pill looks like the ultimate air/naval playground. The whole earth is available to play scenarios? A: That is correct. A scenario can utilize the entire globe (pretty useful for MBX setups too), or it can be arbitrarily constrained on a specific geographical area. The near-space is also included (satellites, RVs etc.). Obviously such a scale creates unique manageability and game speed challenges, and we are tackling those as well. Q: Would you please comment about the naval and air units available? A: Those who have followed our DB work for 10+ years know what they can expect in terms of coverage, realism and attention to detail. Currently our databases cover most land, air and sea units from post-WW2 up to the near future (2015-20). Most of the DB team's focus the last couple years has been to migrate the existing material from our past Harpoon-format databases into our own unique DB structure and format that complies with industry SQL standards, is secure and fits into the object model of our sim. Hopefully afterwards they can focus time on getting OOBs etc. up to date.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

Q: How many scenarios will be available in the game? A: Our goal is to have many available at release time. Freedom from geographic constraints means that now it's possible to do areas/conflicts that are rarely explored if at all in other games. As in the past, we are confident that the best works will ultimately be produced from the community itself. Q: How difficult is the process of making scenarios? Is a mission editor available in the game? A: One of the things we realized when thinking about this was that one of the major blocks for people building scenarios was the time and effort it took to actually do it. So part of our design is to offer tools and features that make the process efficient and painless. A prime example of this philosophy is the ability to mass-import/export any number of units and land facilities. Want to use a specific airbase that someone else has already put together? A couple mouseclicks and you're done. Once you build a complex installation, you can export it and everyone else can re-use it in his own scenario. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve already built a fair amount of installations based on our research and the players will have the ability to build their own as well to import from others. Another feature weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re proud of is photo overlays, which allow players to take satellite pictures (from Google Earth etc.) and overlay them on the map. This allows you to place units at their actual precise coordinates and build installations (airbases, SAM sites etc.) exactly as they are in real life. You can even do battlefields and things like that. It's very neat and combined with the installation import/export makes life much easier for the scenario builder. Mission editor - yes, although it's somewhat different from the ones you are familiar with and it is no longer the sole instrument of directing AI behavior. Q: Many strategists have argued that blue water navies are becoming obsolete. Whether you believe that or not, there is an increase in interest on littoral naval operations. Is "The Red Pill" battle ready for littoral combat? A: We are aware of this emphasis shift and we have paid extra attention to getting the intricacies of littoral and low-intensity conflict right. As examples: * Sensors and comms/datalinks are correctly affected by land mass (both for clutter and LOSblockage), as well as weather conditions. * The CEP-based model for anti-surface weapons gives tremendous modeling flexibility. You can really appreciate the difference between shooting with a gun at a huge capital ship and trying to hit a nimble speedboat with the same weapon. The smart little guy has a lot better odds in Red Pill than in any other past air/nav wargame.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

* Weapon effect and damage modeling is overall improved, since in the littoral/low-intensity arena you're dealing a lot more with guns, rockets, mines and small guided weapons rather than large one-shot ship-killing monsters. We are also looking at improved modeling of things like fire, flooding, secondary explosions etc. but these are still preliminary. * Improved AI and doctrine options, more flexible contact detection, classification & ID levels, more flexible VCs (we are looking into non-kinetic VCs as well)... all sorts of individual little things that, when coming together, can make a big difference in a scenario. Of course these improvements also help with our favorite classic blue-water slugfests. Q: Every gamer has one of those moments where he/she exclaims "this situation couldn't have been represented better by any other game out there". Did you have any of those moments while playing The Red Pill? If so, would you mind sharing it? A: Too many to list exhaustively. Quick examples: * Seeing an aircraft buddy-illuminate for others dropping LGBs (with the laser beam visible on the map). * Watching a comprehensive airbase attack unfold and observing how the cratering of some of the taxiways created heavy traffic jams on the surviving ones, significantly slowing down the sortie tempo of that base - just like in real life. * Doing a low-level nuclear run with a B-1B, the bomber barely outrunning the blast wave of the B83 nuke it had dropped seconds before - and the very same blast wave sweeping almost every land facility in its path. * Watching large capital ships trade broadsides, the shell trails visibly arching through the map, and having their secondary/tertiary batteries increasingly add to the carnage as the ships closed in on each other. * Launching a salvo of cruise missiles from a submarine and watching the target defenses desperately try to shoot them down, first with long-range SAMs, then with shorter-range missiles and ultimately with a thick hail of guns of every caliber. * Watching as the HVU in the middle of a large surface group got sunk and all escorts automatically assumed new positions around another big ship that was "voted" as the new group lead. * Dropping a load of cluster bombs on a dispersed SAM battery and watching the bomblets scatter about before shredding the battery vehicles to bits in multiple explosions. * Watching ships accelerate from creep to flank speed (realistically, not instantly) trying to outrun a detected incoming torpedo. * Launching a heavy ship-killer SSM from a Russian cruiser and then watching as an overhead Bear-D took over its midcourse datalink guidance to "babysit" it towards the distant target area.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.

* Watching fighters engage in BVR duels and realistically beam/dodge incoming missiles (sometimes having to sacrifice their own SARH run to do so) instead of blindly sticking to their targets like dumb robots. The survivors then closing to visual range and turning like mad (and bleeding airspeed in the process) to get a Sidewinder or gun shot off. * Having to carefully plot the course of an SR-71 Kola-recon run because (contrary to some other sims) the Blackbird cannot turn on a dime while at Mach 3 and 80000 feet, and the MiG-31 interceptors are merciless. * Launching a heavy ICBM at an airbase at the other side of the globe and, shortly after apogee and over the Arctic Circle, watching the MIRVs come off the missile one by one and speed down on their individual aimpoints. ...I could go on all night :-) Q: By reading the forums at WarfareSims.com, in particular a thread polling opinions about the delicate balance between completion and release of the game, I assume The Red Pill is in beta stage of development. Is that true? A: The result of that poll so far has been interesting as there seems to be a consistent 50/50 split between those that want a balanced first release and those that would prefer that we hold off until we feel it is feature-complete. However, if you look at Harpoon's history those that are against an early, possibly more buggy release tend to be more vocal. Mix that in with a little internet stalker action and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got the potential for an unpleasant experience. So no public beta yet. That said, internal testing is already underway. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be sending invites out to our friends soon though probably in waves. We want to know what they think. Q: I'm always impressed with independent developers. Even more when it comes with simulations of the complexity of The Red Pill. How do you guys keep sanity? What's the secret? A: You assume we do :-). I think it helps that most of our team has been through at least one rough development phase. We've learned a lot about the process, keeping focused on what really matters, making tough calls where necessary (and being able to defend said calls in public) and last but not least who our friends really are. In the end though I think we all just want the sim we never got by othersâ&#x20AC;Ś it's a powerful motive and we hope it keeps us through both the good and the bad times. Q: Thank you so much, Dimitris. I wish you fair winds and calm seas. I'm looking forward for the release of The Red Pill. A: Thanks Julio. Keep up the great work on your part as well.

Red Pill: An amazing wargame of air & naval military operations at strategic, operational and tactical decision levels.