Players: 2 – 4* (*not including New People’s Army faction player – scenario designed primarily for the facilitator to play as the New People’s Army)
Turn Limit: 7
Map: Luzon
Level of Difficulty: High
Scenario Developer: Ian Brown (ian.t.brown03@gmail.com)
General Situation:
In northern Luzon, what remains of the Filipino government is attempting to reestablish civil functions, but the sheer breadth of the devastation wrought by Taal’s eruption has made the task all but impossible—and the split between competing political factions has not helped matters. Nevertheless, civil leaders have been able to provide some information to the U.S. and Chinese governments to help focus their initial relief efforts.
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) have gathered in several urban areas across northern Luzon. Some are close to the western coastline, others are deeper inland. The competing factions of the Filipino government have each recommended port facilities and airfields close to their “interim” government locations where the U.S. and China can establish beachheads for the delivery of humanitarian aid supplies. Though Taal continues to spew debris into the atmosphere, its violence has subsided sufficiently that the militaries of both countries can approach northern Luzon to begin humanitarian aid/disaster relief (HA/DR) operations.
Yet the U.S. and PRC HA/DR task forces still face several challenges. The urban centers deeper inland on Luzon are isolated by wildfires and mudslides. On Luzon’s eastern coastline, two areas known to shelter IDPs are so isolated that they can only be reached by ship or aircraft. Moreover, a dangerous human threat pervades the peninsula. The collapse of civil order has created a vacuum which the once near-defunct New People’s Army (NPA) is exploiting. Once little more than an armed gang, the NPA has swelled its ranks with the promise of securing relief supplies for its adherents. Gunmen armed with weapons pillaged from the Armed Forces of the Philippines have swarmed Luzon and attacked any agency attempting to deliver aid. There are even rumors that a few NPA cadres have equipped themselves with larger-caliber weapons, suicide drones, and Stinger missiles. These cadres are eager for a chance to win a propaganda victory by ambushing U.S. and Chinese military forces sent to suppress them. In their respective areas of operation, the U.S. and PRC governments have permitted their task forces to organize surviving Filipino military servicemembers or law enforcement officers into ad hoc paramilitary forces. These proxy forces can assist with protecting aid supplies and fighting back against the NPA—but the NPA still significantly outnumber them, and so the U.S. and Chinese task forces both expect that they will need to directly face the NPA to achieve their mission.
Washington and Beijing have both pledged to deliver humanitarian aid while aggressively confronting the NPA forces that threaten to make the regional tragedy even worse. They are also conscious that with the world’s eyes watching them, a successful HA/DR campaign—or at least the public narrative of one—could do much to increase their future influence in the region, with the contingent military benefits and force positioning that such influence provides.
Order of Battle:
USMC/USN:
Task Force New York
Task Force San Francisco
The only units the USMC players may allocate to these task forces are those not assigned to the “Black Flags Over Singapore” counter-piracy scenario. The USMC players may distribute such units across the two task forces as they see fit.
The USMC players may deploy ground units anywhere on hexes J21, J22, or K20. Naval units may be deployed anywhere north of the -22 line of hexes and west of the N line of hexes starting at N14.
Logistics companies and FARP platoons assigned to this scenario may deliver humanitarian aid to a target hex through their Resupply Core Action, requiring 1 AP. The resupply point values for these units are adjusted below. Logistics units may be resupplied via appropriate JCCs, but are restricted to the supply caps and ratios for each type:
Littoral Logistics Company: 15 humanitarian aid supply / 5 combat supply
FARP Platoon: 6 humanitarian aid supply / 2 combat supply
Use a blue cube in the target hex to denote a successfully delivered supply point of humanitarian aid.
Command Points/JCCs: see “special rules and considerations.”
The USMC team receives two free “Proxy Forces” JCCs (4 markers per card) to start the game. The proxy force markers may be placed either in the deployment hexes noted above, or in any of the hexes immediately adjacent to them.
The USMC team may not select any JCCs with the strategic cyber trait. They may still select tactical cyber JCCs if desired.
The USMC team may select the “Assault Support” JCC for this scenario if desired.
PLANMC:
Task Force Beijing
Task Force Shanghai
The only units the PLA players may allocate to these task forces are those not assigned to the “Black Flags Over Singapore” counter-piracy scenario. The PLA players may distribute such units across the two task forces as they see fit.
The PLA players may deploy ground units anywhere on hexes J27, I27, or I28. Naval units may be deployed anywhere south of the -27 line of hexes on the western side of Luzon.
Logistics platoons assigned to this scenario may deliver humanitarian aid to a target hex through their Resupply Core Action, requiring 1 AP. The resupply point values for these units are adjusted below. Logistics units may be resupplied via appropriate JCCs, but are restricted to the supply caps and ratios for each type:
Logistics Platoon: 5 humanitarian aid supply / 2 combat supply
Use a blue cube in the target hex to denote a successfully delivered supply point of humanitarian aid.
Command Points/JCCs: see “special rules and considerations.”
The PLANMC team receives two free “Proxy Forces” JCCs (4 markers per card) to start the game. The proxy force markers may be placed either in the deployment hexes noted above, or in any of the hexes immediately adjacent to them.
The PLA team may select any two of the following JCCs for no cost in CPs during the Planning Stage: Heavy Lift, Expeditionary Logistics, Logistics Resiliency.
The PLANMC team may not select any JCCs with the strategic cyber trait. They may still select tactical cyber JCCs if desired.
The PLA team may select the “Assault Support” JCC for this scenario if desired.
New People’s Army:
12 NPA “Gunmen” markers for the “Gunmen” VCC
3 NPA platoon units
All NPA units may be placed on any hexes on the map not occupied by USMC or PLANMC units. This includes hexes that are in the ZOC of a USMC or PLANMC unit.
Alternatively, the NPA player may wait to deploy Gunmen markers until the point in the turn cycle under the optional “Infiltration” rules.
Violent Non-State Actor Capability Cards (VCCs): for this scenario, the NPA uses these VCCs:
Social Media Boosting, Suicide VBIED, Suicide Drones (Land), Improvised Explosive Device, Gunmen
Objectives:
Both the USMC and PLANMC teams seek to maximize their gain of local influence through successful HA/DR delivery of supplies. Any net positive gain of local influence carries forward to the final scenario.
Conversely, the NPA player seeks to detract from the local influence of both the USMC and PLANMC teams by stealing humanitarian aid supplies, as well as using direct violence against units of those players as opportunities present.
In this scenario, “local influence” is represented by black cubes.
NPA actions detract specifically from either the influence of the USMC or the PLANMC teams.
As such, the NPA player should retain two separate influence “pools” to effectively track the impacts of negative influence on the USMC and PLANMC respectively.
The chart below denotes how each team can gain local influence, and how the NPA gains influence against the USMC and PLANMC teams:
There are 6 hexes that the USMC and PLANMC players can target for the delivery of humanitarian aid supplies: L17, K30, S21, R26, V23, and U31. Each hex can receive 7 aid supply cubes cumulatively i.e. if the US player has already delivered 5 cubes to a hex, the PLA player can only deliver 2 more.
Hexes V23 and U31 are considered “remote” for this scenario’s objective conditions.
The scenario is played through to the end of the turn 7, regardless of whether all NPA units are destroyed in previous turns.
Unit Losses: as delineated in the “Taal’s Fury” master campaign guide and “Black Flags Over Singapore” Malacca scenario, any USMC or PLANMC units destroyed in this scenario are permanently removed from the campaign and may not be redeployed in the final scenario. Both teams must accurately track destroyed units to carry the results forward into proper deployments in the final scenario, “Taal’s Wrath.”
The final Influence outcome is determined thusly:
The facilitator/NPA player deducts any cubes in their USMC and PLANMC specific influence pools from the USMC and PLANMC player pools respectively.
The USMC and PLANMC players will then annotate their tally of the cubes remaining in their local influence pools (if any). Local influence tallies are carried forward on the maps in which they are earned—players must accurately annotate and separate their tallies from “Black Flags Over Singapore” and “Stepping On Scorpions” to properly set conditions for “Taal’s Wrath.”
Facilitator Notes:
This scenario includes a unique Event Card—“Volcanic Eruption”—which requires a die roll to determine the environmental conditions, and associated unit and JCCs constraints, at the start of each turn. This Event Card remains in effect for the duration of the scenario.
There is a high probability that the USMC and PLA players will face the decision to direct LRSs against urban hexes (cities, towns, ports, or airfields). The facilitator should emphasize the Influence penalty taken by any team that directs a LRS into those types of hexes prior to the game’s start.
This scenario’s intent is that a facilitator play the NPA faction in order to maximize student learning gained by playing the full spectrum of capabilities for the USMC and PLANMC teams. The facilitator may allow students to play the NPA team as desired.
Special Rules and Considerations:
The “Volcanic Eruption” Event Card is in effect for the duration of the scenario.
The Influence Meter is not in play for this scenario.
However, the NPA player gains 1 local influence cube each time the USMC and PLANMC teams conduct an LRS into an urban hex.
Rules of Engagement: the USMC and PLANMC conventional units and Proxy Forces may not directly attack each other’s units. The USMC and PLANMC teams may target NPA units at any time.
The possibility exists for accidental damage between USMC and PLANMC conventional units—this is described below in “Deconflicting Fires.”
USMC and PLANMC SOF units only may offensively attack each other’s Proxy Forces.
The Tactical Network starting JCCs for each side begin the scenario with 2 cubes on their respective cards. This represents the degraded communications conditions caused by physical destruction from the volcano’s eruption and atmospheric interference from airborne debris.
The NPA player always has initiative in this scenario. At the start of the scenario, the USMC and PLANMC players will each roll one die to see who gets initiative following the NPA turn—the team with the higher roll wins initiative. In this scenario, turn order will not change following this initial determination of initiative.
Wildfires and mudslides: during the Planning Stage, the facilitator or instructor will place one “obstacle” yellow cube on each of the following hexes: R21, R22, S20, S22, R25, Q25, Q26, and R27. These represent wildfires and mudslides triggered by the volcanic eruption. Each obstacle prevents movement through the hex and blocks the path of any Resupply Core Action. The USMC and PLA players can remove these obstacles with appropriate JCCs.
Each USMC and PLANMC task force has the standard 3 actions per task force, per turn. However, the NPA player has 4 actions per impulse, per turn.
The USMC and PLANMC players each have 25 Command Points to select JCCs at the start of the scenario. On turns 3 and 5, each get an additional 8 Command Points to select additional JCCs. This scenario also has additional JCC considerations:
Per the “Taal’s Fury” Planning section, JCCs assigned to support operations for the “Black Flags Over Singapore” counter-piracy scenario are considered unavailable and out of play for this scenario, and vice versa. Players must carefully consider which JCCs they believe will support their unique objectives in each scenario.
USMC and PLANMC players should consider their “Heavy Lift” and “Seaplanes” JCCs for this scenario.
SOF in the Offense: in this scenario, USMC and PLANMC SOF units may move; MP = 1. USMC and PLANMC SOF units may also offensively target each other’s Proxy Forces, as well as NPA Gunmen.
Proxy Harassment: in this scenario, all Proxy Forces (to include NPA Gunmen) may attempt to block movement of opposing units. This requires a successful roll 1 – 10 for each Proxy/Gunmen marker in the hex. Only one successful roll is required to stop all opposing movement through the hex. Movement can only be resumed when the Proxy Forces/Gunmen are expelled or killed. Additionally, a Proxy Force belonging to another player automatically blocks the path required by a logistics unit to conduct a Resupply Core Action; the owning player does not need to roll for success to achieve this effect.
Steal Supplies: all NPA units may attempt to steal humanitarian supplies in the hex they occupy as a Core Action. For unguarded supplies (no USMC or PLA forces in the hex), the NPA player may roll 1 dice for each of its attacking units; for each roll 1 – 10, the NPA player steals (removes) 1 cube of aid supply. For guarded supplies (USMC or PLA forces are present in the hex), the defending player(s) may attempt to intercept the NPA units with any units that have a ground assault value, or with nonlethal JCCs. After resolving their losses, the NPA player must roll 1 – 5 to steal supplies.
Deconflicting Fires: if a USMC or PLANMC unit targets an NPA unit for a LRS (not a ground assault attack) in a hex adjacent to one with a ground unit belonging to the other side, they must ask the other player for permission to fire in close proximity to that unit. If the defending player says “no” and the attacker continues with the LRS: a roll of 1 – 3 will also cause a loss of 1 HP to the opposing player’s ground unit.
Optional NPA rule – Infiltration: the mechanics for the “Infiltration” rule are intended to capture the frustratingly fluid nature of attack and movement conducted by lightly armed irregular forces. Unencumbered by heavy weapons and body armor, and with superior knowledge of the local environment, irregulars often seem to appear out of nowhere, attack, and then slip away before conventional forces can effectively engage them. If desired, players can use the mechanics below to simulate an agile irregular force on the battlefield:
Instead of deploying at the beginning of the game, the NPA player keeps their Gunmen markers in a reserve pool. This reserve pool will act as a holding area for all Gunmen markers not destroyed for the duration of the scenario.
At the beginning of the NPA player’s first impulse inside of the turn, they may deploy any remaining Gunmen markers from the reserve pool to any empty 1 or 2 MP hex. Deployed Gunmen markers move and attack as described in the VCC for the remainder of the turn.
At the end of the NPA player’s final impulse inside the turn, they may remove all surviving Gunmen markers from the map and return them to the reserve pool. o Gunmen markers destroyed by the USMC and PLANMC players do not return to the reserve pool; they are permanently removed from the game.
Violent Non-State Actor Capability Cards (VCCs):
Similar to Joint Capability Cards, VCCs represent unique capabilities that the NPA player can employ, either singly or in combination. Conditions for the use of each VCC are described in the card text. VCCs may be used whenever the specific hex range, or other employment conditions noted on the card, are met, and do not count as an Action Point unless the VCC specifically states otherwise.
The VCCs are also written to provide players and facilitators with a scaled difficulty level for the third player, dependent on how challenging they want to make any specific scenario. For this scenario, the table below outlines three different levels of difficulty that players and/or facilitators may choose from. To provide maximum flexibility to the facilitator/NPA player, an allotment pool is used to distribute VCC cubes: