WIP: The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan 1979 -1990

[our_man]

Hi all. It's time for me to announce that I'm progressing quite well with my current bi-annual scenario project. As some of you are no doubt aware, communism was working on an Afghan scenario, but I haven't seen any sign of him since the forum crash.

Impatient as I am, I decided to dust off some of the stuff he did and base a scenario around it. Only a few days into it however I decided I'd take a radically different approach to what he was working towards. communism was going to have a separate Soviet civilization and an Afghan People's Republic allied to them. I was never the biggest fan of alliances - lots of AI units clogging up your transport network and taking up time between turns gets on my nerves.

I solved this by having a joint USSR/Democratic Republic of Afghanistan civilization under Babrak Kamal, with Soviet units only available via events. The mujahideen don't really feature in the first few turns of the scenario; it starts off at the very beginning of the Afghan war, 25th December 1979. You'll be expected to storm Kabul, kill Hafizullah Amin and finally defeat any remaining PDPA forces loyal to him to take control of the country. Amin certainly won't go down without a fight! The mujahideen will be trying to do the same however, so it's a race against time!

I'll post a few screenshots of what I've done below. If anyone has any comments/suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

[our_man]

24th December 1979, just before midnight

The quiet of the hot Kabul night has been shattered these past few days by the increased frequency of Soviet flights into Bagram airport. Amin has grown suspicious of the increased traffic and has relocated the offices of the president to a more defensible position. On the ground however, as you can see from this screenshot, all is calm. Nevertheless 2 PDPA infantry units guard the approach from Bagram into the city centre of Kabul.

It's boring duty, but safer than fighting the rebels in the countryside. After all the Soviets are fellow comrades in the worldwide struggle for socialism! What threat could they pose?

[our_man]

But wait! Reports are coming in of large movements of Soviet units, just across the border from Mazar-i-Sharif! It's estimated that 3 Soviet motorized divisions are poised to cross the border, supported by 4 reserve divisions in the southern Soviet Union. What could this mean?

[Sarsstock]

My my my, you see to have made quite a bit of progress there already. I love the colouring of the Soviet tanks personally.

Please, allow us the privillage of more screenshots good sir! Also, did you make those city graphics yourself?

[jim panse]

@ our_man: I still have some funky coloured Late-cold war units Chris/sarsstock made for my Oktyabr scenario - I might as well share them with you PM me if you want to see them

[Sarsstock]

Personally I love the glimering shine on the units as they are. They have the kind of texture that I would love to learn to apply to units. Did you colour those units yourself or get them from a pre-existing unitset?

[our_man]

Thanks for the comments so far. None of the graphics are mine - the extent of my alterations are putting a shield on them are changing their orientation from left to right.

The Soviet tanks are taken from Pablostuka's Morroco scenario. The great cities are by Stefan Härtel and are taken from his 'Fire & Roses' scenario, as are the suburbs (railroads). I don't think I've seen any other city set that creates such an accurate image of Central Asia.

OK, another screenshot. I can't really give another 'in-game' screenshot as I don't want to reveal the location of the Mujahideen bases, and there's not a lot of action on the ground from the start due to the precarious situation of the Afghan army (expect an account of the Soviets treachery in the readme file) and the Soviets need to maintain the element of surprise. Below however is what I hope will demonstrate the reinforcement concept of the scenario. From USSR Air Force the player can either invest their resources into building up an Afghan air force, or they can call in more Soviet gunships (request Mi-24) or recon craft (request MiG-25).

P.S. None of the units displayed in this screenshot are actually buildable during the scenario - they'e just there to show up in the pedia. This isn't always the case, but the rule of thumb is that if it has a Soviet shield, it's unbuildable.

[fairline]

Nice to see this O-M

[Case]

Re: 24th December 1979, just before midnight

Originally posted by our_man
The quiet of the hot Kabul night

Just to be pedantic, but Kabul is anything but hot in December

[our_man]

Just to be pedantic, but Kabul is anything but hot in December

Er... Artistic licence?

[Case]

Kabaul in winter is probably warmer than Glasgow in summer though.

[Boco]

I know which of the two I'd rather visit.

Stumbled across this on Afghan weather at Burke Chair in Strategy. Don't know much about the site. Looks like a think-tank of Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst who hasn't been afraid to criticize the US-led effort in Iraq.


(http://wintercenter.homestead.com/photokabul.html)

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Case
Kabaul in winter is probably warmer than Glasgow in summer though.

Pff!

Obviously you have not experienced the disgustingly clammy Scottish summer!

Sweltering here in Caledonia, but under the usual iron grey sky!

[tanelorn]

Will these Hinds do?

I had posted a hind ages ago, so I felt it needed a retouch...

The leftmost is more realistic for the Soviets
The rightmost is in Afgan/Indian camo.

Mig 25R in the works...

[Broken_Erika]

sweet!,
a new mig25 soon?