S3 Series

Updates/corrections in red
-------------------
Rhine Crossings is a fictional scenario set in March 1945. The Rhine has been crossed by elements of the Allied 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Montgomery over the bridge at Wesel (Ville-base 34) and by the U.S. 1st Army under Lt Gen Hodges at Remagen (Ville-base 36). However, the deaths of Lt Gen Patton and Lt General Patch in a C-47 crash on March 1st created a command ‘vacuum’ within the the U.S 3rd and 7th Armies along the southern front. Combined with a series of Low Pressure systems grounding Allied tactical air power, their deaths have given the German Army a window of opportunity. The German 7th Army under General Hans Felber and the German 1st Army under General Hermann Foertsch have mounted counter-offensives through Frankfurt (Ville-base 48) and Strasbourg (Ville-base 43) successfully driving back the Allied 3rd and 7th Armies and reclaimed portions of the Western Rhineland.
It is Mid-March 1945 and the skies have cleared. The Allied and Axis air forces are about to do battle.

Frame Rules are IAW the BNB Rules posted on the S3 site with the following additions:

Terrain – ETO
Given limitation of ETO, players will be asked to stretch their geographic imagination a bit.
The Maas River is standing-in for the Rhine and the eastern spawn point of Ville-base 36 and GAF 114 are standing in for the Remagen bridgehead.
The river running east from Ville-base 38 “does not exist”, so bridges at Ville-base 38, City 57 and City 59 are out of play for VP scoring.
GAF114 will not have aircraft enabled for either side throughout the frame
Bridges across the Rhine (at Ville-base 34, Ville-base 36, Ville-base 48 and Ville-base 43) are the key to the fortunes of the Allied and Axis armies.
Field ownership at start of frame is as illustrated below.



Airfelds, Ville-bases and Cities outside the illustrated area are out of play. (All should be set to neutral except for V-b 46 which will be Axis)


Allied objectives:
Crush the LW on the ground, interdict German held bridge crossings. Destroy any vehicle columns advancing out of Strasbourg and Frankfurt. There will be no AI GVs.
At frame end (T+160)
- Deny Axis use of two of GAF 115, GAF 117, GAF120 or GAF121 (CAPTURED and HOLD(OPEN))
- Destroy or control all bridge spans owned by the Axis at frame start: Ville-base 48 (1 span) and Ville-base 43 (4 spans)

Axis objectives:
Blunt the overwhelming might of Allied Tactical Airpower and prevent further Allied troops from entering the Fatherland. Destroy any vehicle columns advancing out of Wesel or Remagen. No AI GVs
At frame end (T+160)
- Deny Allied use of two of GAF 113, GAF116, GAF118 or GAF119 (CAPTURED and HOLD(OPEN))
- Destroy or control all bridge spans owned by the Allies at frame start: V-b 34 ( 5 spans) and V-b 36 (10 spans)

Victory Point Scoring
If either side fully attains their objective at T+160 they are declared the winner and earn 150 VPs [all other scoring/bonuses from the frame are ignored, but scores will still reside in the S6C]
If neither or both sides fully attains their objectives, victory will be determined using the BNB S3 point Summary:
- Bonus points will be awarded on the basis of the percentage of destroyed/captured bridge spans at frame end (T+160)
- Allied: 3 of 5 bridge spans, 10% scoring bonus. 5 of 5 spans 20% bonus
- Axis: 9 of 15 bridge spans, 10% scoring bonus. 15 of 15 spans 20% bonus
- N.B. Bridges at Ville-base 38, City 54 and City 59 do not count towards VPs
- OT_Bridge objects at the west spawn point of Ville-base 51 are considered docks and are also not counted towards bonus VPs.

Aircraft Basing
• NO AIRCRAFT will be enabled at GAF114. Aircraft landing there will be considered to have DITCHED
• All Allied Fighters will be enabled at GAF 113, GAF 116, GAF 119
• All Allied Fighters and C-47 will be enabled at GAF118
• All Allied Bombers will be enabled at MAF 24 and LAF 27. No airstarts
• All Axis Fighters will be enabled at GAF 115, GAF 115, GAF 120, GAF 121
• All Axis Bombers will be enabled at LAF 53 and LAF 54. No airstarts
• No step limits for aircraft basing
• Field assignments are at discretion of Frame COs

Ground Vehicle Basing
• There will not be any AI GVs, however players will have the option to operate GVs.
• GVs will only be available from Ville-bases and GAF-114.
• Available GVs:
o Allied GVs
 M4E JUMBO
 M5 APC
 M16 (vice M16X) quad 50s
o Axis GVs
 MkVa
 Opel Truck
 SdKfz 7/2 single 37mm

Field Closure Requirements
• all OT_types except "twr", "runway", "taxy_way", "boatentry", "rock", and "unit".
• NB: Object rebuild set to 60 minutes (Military Engineers repairing bridges and other things)

Field Capture
• Troops may be delivered using GVs or Ju52/C-47.
• Should it switch hands, GAF114 will have country appropriate GVs enabled.
• Other than GAF 114, captured airfields and Ville-bases will not have aircraft or GVs enabled. This is to reflect stretched supply lines.

Planning and organization will bring victory.

Any questions?

Good Luck.

Muzz
Acting Janitor

A question came up offline reference lives and numbers of sorties per aircraft type.
Each player will have three lives for the frame. Any result of badbail, crash, exploded, midair, pkill, disco damaged or captured while in an aircraft or GV counts as a life. Three deaths and you're done.
Of the aircraft/GV types available each player may use up to a maximum of three different types (exception for troop carriers). If you break your ride (one of the bad things above happens, you bail, or you ditch too far away from an airfield) you may not fly/drive that vehicle type again (exception for troop carriers and disco no damage).
Clear as mud?
Questions? Fire away.

Unless WB grants everyone 2 more lives. hehe.

Last week Darryl and I both found our GV's Stuck in a "Black Hole" in the terrain. The outside views showed smooth ground and yet our rear axels were below the terrain surface. I finally got my GV to move but it hit the edge of the hole and broke my axel. Has this been fixed or will we see more of these dead spots in the terrain? I'm hoping this was just a glitch.

Fixing this will require a moderate amount of effort from someone who is very familiar with the terrain editor tools. You should expect that the specific problem at the location you experienced it will not be fixed before the next frame. There may be other areas where similar problems exist. Remember, the ETO was a terrain made by the player community and not exhaustively tested. Please provide as much detail as you can on exactly where this problem occurred. If it is a significant issue (i.e. will affect game play every time we use the ETO), hopefully we can get it addressed. Conversely, don't drive a GV there. I know not as helpful as we all would like.

Rules updated. We won't be having any AI GVs this frame.