Here's an idea for a non-historical, alternate universe scenario. Two different sides will fight it out in a series of 12 turns, with two frames per turn. The outcome of each turn would affect the availability of resources available to each side in the following frame. One "country" would have more up front capital in the form of economic points (EP) to spend on initial equipment acquisition, while the other country would have greater industrial potential (i.e. able to produce more EP per frame-turn). This scenario would require a carefully crafted custom terrain to insure playability and side balance. This is the sequence of events:
1. Airframe Bidding Phase - Each side would submit closed bids (using their initial store of EP for each type of airframe represented in the game. The high bidder would get exclusive right to produce that line of aircraft (i.e. Bf-109 series, A6M series, etc.). Note that winning a bid and paying the EP doesn't actually buy you any aircraft; just the exclusive right to produce it. The CM would oversee this auction, insuring that neither side was allowed to produce more then one-half the available airframe types.
2. Production Phase - Both sides determine the number of EP produced from their surviving infrastructure. In the very first turn, each side would also have a certain number of EP in the bank. Next, they allocate them to do the following: produce aircraft, activate or repair airfields and other facilities, prototype new aircraft (bringing out a new airframe type would be more expensive then introducing upgrades to an airframe already under production), and produce CV battle groups (CVBG). As we are limited in the number of players that can participate in any one frame, purchasing extra aircraft won't necessarily buy you more combat power. Rather it provides staying power, since any AC not destroyed in one frame will be available in the next.
3. Combat Phase - Each side would plan and execute missions with the intent to destroy enemy tactical and strategic targets, and to defend against enemy attacks against their own. The combat phase will consist of two sub-phases, or "frames," the Strategic Air Frame (SAF) and the Tactical Air Frame (TAF).
A. Strategic Air Frame (SAF) - Both sides conduct strikes against strategic-level (cities/factories/POL) and operational-level (bridges/port facilities/barracks) targets. Ground unit participation is restricted to manning AAA units in fixed locations, i.e. they may not move beyond line-of-site from the targets they're defending. No troop movements and no panzers are allowed during the SAF.
B. Tactical Air Frame (TAF) - Both sides move ground forces (including paratroops) in an attempt to take and control territory. Aircraft sortie types allowed include the following: CAP, BARCAP, CAS, strike escort, battlefield interdiction, and offensive/defensive fighter sweeps. Strategic targets can only be hit if enemy ground forces are present inside the strategic target's perimeter, or to suppress defensive guns in support of a drive on that target by friendly ground forces.
4. Strategic Advance Phase - Gaining control of map sectors: The ultimate goal in this war is to take and hold as much of the enemy's territory as possible before the end of the scenario. How is that done? Air power alone can not take and hold territory. Each grid-square will have three or five designated strategic control points (SCP). To capture a grid, you must capture and hold until the end of the TAF a simple majority of a grid's SCPs; i.e. airfields, vehicle depots, and sector command bunkers (a map room protected by some guns). Capturing SCPs is accomplished in the time-honored way of dumping sufficient troops on it to affect a capture, just as in the main arena. However, the number of troops required may change over the course of the conflict.
Example: Force Blue controls grid-square 10,9. During the TAF, Force Orange captures four out of five SCPs, but looses one back to Blue just before the frame ends. Three out of five is a simple majority, so Orange gains control of (i.e. captures) 10,9, and will control it at the beginning of the next turn.
Any unfriendly units left in the grid at the end of the TAF are assumed to retreat to the nearest grid controlled by their country. Everything else in the captured grid now belongs to the capturing side; however, these captured facilities are considered to be destroyed (scorched earth policy) by the retreating army, and must be rebuilt in the next Production Phase to be used by the capturing side. After they are rebuilt, these facilities produce half the economic points (EP) they are rated at (round fractions up). They then begin producing EPs in the next. A captured grid will never produce more than half its rated EPs, even if the original country captures it back.
5. Post-Combat Phase - The campaign manager (CM) assesses the effect of enemy strikes and advances on each side's industrial/political infrastructure, and tells each side how many EP they produced this turn (this information is secret, and not known by opposing sides). Damage to factories and refineries during the preceding combat phase cause a direct reduction of EPs produced; damage to political targets (such as Buckingham Palace and Parliament) and infrastructure (ports and bridges) causes a negative modifier in the form of a percentage to be applied to EP produced. Attacks on tactical targets such as airfields and radar sites do not have a direct affect on EP produces, but may aid attacks on strategic targets. As an example, hitting a radar site won't reduce the number of EP produced by an enemy, but may allow a bomber formation to reach a factory complex undetected and successfully attack it. Additionally, it costs the enemy EP to repair them, if they chose to do so.
Phases 2 through 5 are repeated once eleven more times.
Campaign Victory Conditions:
Victory goes to the side that captures and holds the most enemy grid squares. There are no levels of victory for the overall campaign; in war, you either win or lose.
------------------
Sabre, a.k.a. Rojo
(S-2, The Buccaneers)
