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SCENARIOS & VARIANTS AIRBURST Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Gap by Matthew W. Foster

Heavy on the nukes this issue, eh people? Soon I'll the enemy's formations. NATO troops are 7000 nuclear warheads deployed in Europe; be seeing nuclear rules for Swords & disappointed at first; it wasn't half the show most of these are in the ten to 50 kiloton Sorcery . . . or does that comewith the standard they'd expected and not nearly enough range of yield. game? Deeper into the Strangelovian aspects this and APCs were toasted. These medium-yield systems ' rely on time with neutron bombs (ah, make that "enhanc­ Then tanks begin to slew crazily about blast and heat to do their dirty work. Col­ ed radiation weapon," pleaseJ. As the author and ram one another. APCs wander aimless­ lateral damage is likely to be considerable, points out this is not a really new concept - just a new realization as to how destabilizing their ly about or roll to harmless halts. The ad­ and certainly a hell of a lot of fallout will be deployment could be (or rather the imention to vance becomes a grisly comedy as vehicles kicked-up by tacnuke strikes. Countryside, deploy them, eh comrades?), Or is it al l just a trick scatter in all directions. NATO troops sud­ urban areas, and lingering civilians are going to make you buy Nexc Wa,? - RAS denly realize that they've just witnessed the to be wasted just as well as enemy forces. world's first neutron barrage. The Threat of­ Fulda Gap fails to take this into account. fensive degenerates into total chaos all across The whole question of whether or not It's 0620, D plus three, forty klicks east the Gap. Preparations for counter-attack tacnukes will even be used is debatable. Will of . The 3rd Armored has been begin. the warring powers want to risk escalation in­ fighting like hell since contacting Threat Let's see: CBR troops, neutron barrages to a full-scale nuclear slug-fest? Fulda Gap forces early on D plus one, but the sheer mass - Super-Ogre, right? Wrong. No fairy tale pretends that they won't escalate, and so will of the enemy assault has taken its toll. Stocks this. If the funds for development and pro­ I, but clearly the nuclear warfare rules and of the vital TOW missiles are down to twenty duction are allocated, this could be the the victory system could use some fiddling in percent inventory, maybe one more day's battlefield scene in by mid- this regard. ammo. Dragon stocks are even lower. Burnt­ 1979, or even earlier. First, roll a die to see when tacnukes can out hulks of enemy tanks litter the battle­ come into play. Political decisions have to be field, but the rumbling nearby says it's a made. and this die roll is your "politicans." fresh division that's jumping off to assault The following is my suggested die roll - the 3rd's positions. The 3rd's combat units availability. Turn are still at sixty-five percent TOW, but with Die Roll Available the ammo going so fast, a fresh division or 1 [ two will shatter the tenuous line for sure. 2-3 2 French divisions are racing madly for the 3-5 3 Gap, but it looks as if they're going to be far 6 4 too late to save the front. As the 4oo-tube softening barrage lifts, Only one roll is needed, because when T -62s suddenly break from the wood lines one side uses nukes, the other side will too. It 4000 meters in front of the 3rd's FEBA (For­ matters little who went first, but for your ward Edge of Battle Area) spotters. Massive own purposes. you can roll a second die, with spread phalanxes of tanks roll across the an odd number meaning that a frustrated 1500 meter front toward the 3rd's positions. NATO shot first, evens meaning the nasty BMPs follow close behind, their Saggers Russians did it. What this all means to you is ready to destroy any point targets that ap­ your own business, but remember that since pear. That is it. "days" occur simultaneously for each There is one last card for NATO play. player, both sides start nuking in the same Coded authorization to use battlefield Game-Turn no matter who shoots first . nuclear systems came through to Division at Next, give the nuking player's opponent 0400. The 3rd's troops wonder where the (the poor sap being nuked) victory points for Warthog strikes have gone, but they cannot each warhead detonated according to ter­ know that all NATO aircraft have been Modern Threat (I use this euphemism to rain. The rationale here is simple. The Threat warned away from the area. Orders flash leave everyone's feathers un-ruffled) tactical governments don't want to capture (well, from Division. Units prepare for the nearby doctrine calls for the great concentration of they might, but they would find that policy tacnuke detonations. CBR troops, exhausted an attacking division's forces at the point of useless) piles of nuclear slag instead of cities. from the Threat's two-day old chemical at­ breakthrough. Such massed formations are It's also hard to imagine an abashed NATO tacks, prepare for action again. Decon­ hard for a strained and thinned defensive line spokesman saying, "We had to destroy taminants are readied, to turn, but they make nice targets for tac­ Wurzburg to save it." VPs in clear terrain are DivArty's (Divisional Artillery) tubes tical nuclear strikes. Any grand offensive simple too. There is no purely clear terrain in train to pre-selected points. The two Lance movement by Threat forces, especially Europe; there are houses, farms, and villages missile task forces arm their new W70-3 war­ against a desperate NATO, runs the risk of everywhere. No one would appreciate an un­ heads. Time-an-Target is scheduled and the being nuked into little greasy spots. Not even solicited airburst over his property. The Fire Direction Center (FDq orders Fire! the heaviest counter-battery can silence every following is an additional VP schedule. Eight-inch howitzers and 155s rumble; Lance gun within support range - besides, it only This brings me to the subject of the missiles hiss from their launchers. FDC takes one nuclear' 'stick" to do the job. enhanced radiation weapon - the Neutron coun ts down: "Eighteen . .. seven teen .. . " The only problem is that NATO "con­ Bomb (old earth style, you grimy " ... two . . . one . .. SPLASH!" ventional" nuclear battlefield systems may Xenophobe). ERWs have been tooling Bright flashes appear 100 meters above not be able to do the job. NATO has about around Army R&D since the early 60s, but it 2'1

was only last July that General Alfred D. resolution. If only one brigade strikes, the In the phase of initial defensive use, all Starbird of the Energy Research and division's stick is expended just the same as if units that may make an ERW strike, must Development Administration told the House all brigades had fired. All brigades may at­ make an ERW strike. This simulates a appropriations committee. tack one adjacent hex. This is in addition to "shock" doctrine for initial deployment. VPs to Opponent artillery ERW strikes. No collateral damage is sustained by Terrain per Warhead Artillery unit ERW strikes attack the units adjacent to the target hex, ERWs may City 1 hex on the "4" column of Table 19.24 and be safely employed close to US troops Urban 2 contaminate on the "5" column of table because of a larger buffer zone and smaller All other Yz 19.33. Unlike conventional contamination, kill zone than conventional nukes. Only hexes adjacent to US units may be offensive­ Ignore fractional VPs affected units are contaminated, not the hex itself. Place an appropriate contamination ly attacked by artillery units in the nuke Two ERW systems have been developed marker on top of every unit in the hex, phase. Consequently, Electronic Warfare as of the present. The W70-3 is a warhead regardless of whether or not that unit took has no effect. designed for the Lance missile, and the W79 casualties. Units that incur at least a one-step A final note concerning all nuclear is an eight-inch artillery fired atomic projec­ loss in the attack are retreated one hex and strikes: I suggest that no airstrikes can be tile. disrupted until the end of the Game-Turn. made within one hex of any nuclear strike. I ERWs offer numerous advantages (see This simulates the total disorganization that don't think NATO command would risk fly­ Figure). An ERW's blast is about 17 percent a neu tron strike would cause. Contamination ing a squadron of A-lOs into one of their own that of a similarly potent conventional tac­ attacks occur in the Contamination Removal airbursts. nuke from airburst. ERWs kick-Up only Phase prior to contamination degradation. Using ERWs may be realistic (pro­ about 10 percent of the fallout. Conven­ Neutron contamination is reduced one level viding .. . ), but it may also tip play balance tional nukes destroy by blast and heat, each Removal Phase automatically. slightly in NATO's favor .. 1 suggest that at ERWs by intense neutron-flux. After initial firing, artillery units may least half of the divisions recommended for The neutron flux is over with inside of expend their remaining sticks either in the the Effort variant be used in conjunc­ two one-millionths of a second of detona­ nuke phase or defensively as ou tlined above. tion with ERW rules. I think it's reasonable tion. The neutrons, once released, are stop­ Supply units are still only affected by an "x" to assume that the Gap would be a Soviet ped by atomic nuclei, principally nitrogen result, but are considered ineffective as long main objective anyway. The addenda for nuclei in the air. This is why the ERW's as they are contaminated. conventional strikes, however, is applicable lethality drops' so quickly at range (see Divisional ERWs attack on the' '3" col­ in either case. figure). umn of Table 19.24 and contaminate on the These changes are strongly based on fact ERWs are hard to shield against, too. "4" column of Table J 9.33. Otherwise their and doctrine. Using them may require just a The armor thickness that stops 90 percent of effects are as outlined above, with the excep­ little more bookkeeping, but only a the gamma radiation from conventional tac­ tion that they may be used only once peT divi­ microscopic amount when compared with nukes only blocks out about 30 percent of the sion and only in defensi ve situations. the added dimension in game terms. neutrons. The rest of the neutrons "shine" through. The neutrons that are absorbed by the armor cause the armor to begin emitting gamma particles. Any shielding that catches ERWEFFECTS EjjeclSQf the neutrons becomes radioactive for a long Zone Effects ofER W Conventional Tacnukes time. 1 Buffer zone, little radiation Blast damage, little radiation So, what is this in game terms? First, 2 No blast damage, fatal radiation Blast damage, some radiation ERWs will be deployed with all artillery and 3 Little blast damage, fatal rad. Blast damage, fatal radiation Lance task-forces (such as the artillery units 4 Blast damage,fatal radiation in Fulda Gap) and also with DivArty's general support 155s. So, all US units in . Fulda Gap, except SDUs and STUs, have an ERW capability. Airburst Diagrams ERWs become available on Game-Turn Four regardless of the tacnuke availability result. This means that ERWs could be the first tacnukes deployed, providing that con­ ventionals are also unavailable until Game­ Turn Four. If tacnukes are already in use, it's just a NATO advantage. Only US combat units may utilize ER W strikes. Each division of three brigades is deployed wih one ERW "stick" available. Artillery units carry two sticks. One addi­ tional stick becomes available for resupply for the artillery units on Game-Turn Seven. ERWs may only be used initially in de­ fensive situations. That works like this: before any Soviet attacks are made, but after Soviet movement is completed, the US player announces he is making initial ERW commit­ ment. Any artillery units within range of Soviet units may fire an ERW strike. This is ERW Conventional in place of FPF from that unit, and the (Enhanced Radiation Weapon) Tacnukes Soviet-occupied he)( must be in range, not the defendin~ US units. Combat brigades may expend their divi­ sion's stick at the instant of combat, prior to