Campaign Context and Background

1.1 Preface

Operation Herodotus (OH) is primarily a wargaming exercise designed to drive decision making and intellectual discovery through human adversarial challenges and dynamic events. OH aims to immerse and inform aircrews on the broader nature of integrated combined force operations. Additionally, OH hopes to advance sound tactical decision making and flight leadership skills by creating an environment where technological overmatch is unlikely, and sound element employment is imperative. For clarity, this document will utilize the following terms:

·         Players: Those individuals who participate in the wargaming experience. (To include both blue and red)

·         Aircrew: Those individuals who participate in the DCS campaign experience. (To include pilots, WSOs, ABMs/WDs)

·         Actors: Those individuals who participate in the DCS campaign experience but are not classically considered a 455 vAEW pilot. (To include JTACs, GCI, ATC, etc.)

1.2 Scope

The fictional basis for Operation Herodotus is set in the year 1979. The wargaming component includes the application of air, land, and sea power. For the aircrew partaking in OH missions, this should be akin to a normal campaign with the exception that the progression and conclusion of said campaign will primarily be driven by the wargaming exercise and limited adjudication.

Additionally, OH aims to simulate scarcity and due careful considerations in reference to resource allocations and targeting. Put simply, within the scenario, this theater of operations is not highly prioritized for resupply, and aircrews should be prepared to make do with less.

1.3 Exercise Limitations

Technical limitations within DCS include an inadequate or incomplete simulation of historical assets for both BLUE and RED forces. AI behavior and tactics are also often suspect and may not fully represent the application of combat power.  Additionally, the scope of Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) is not easily modeled with a 1:1 ratio of forces or maneuvers and as such needs to be scaled appropriately for expected performance within DCS. Generally, these limitations are addressed and discussed in later sections of this document and are estimated to not likely to have a significant impact on aircrew experiences.

1.4 Background

This section under development.