BOTA 21 – Europa Invicta

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Author: IlDuce-17

Last revision: 8 Mar at 00:37 UTC

File size: 11.54 MB

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PART 21 – EUROPA INVICTA:
26 July 1985. NATO ground troops are winning exacting defeats against Soviet ground forces across Western Europe. The Jutland peninsula is reclaimed and NATO forces edge toward Copenhagen, tightening the noose around the Baltic approaches. In West Germany the line has moved east. NATO formations have crossed the Elbe and are forcing Warsaw Pact units into retreat, one engagement at a time, with no room for Soviet recovery. Europe has been bloodied, not broken and she rises once again, united against tyranny, invincible – Europa Invicta.

For Marshal Ogarkov, this is the nightmare scenario his original gamble was meant to prevent. His doctrine promised a quick collapse of NATO cohesion through shock, speed, and the seizure of the northern flank. Instead, the campaign has become a grinding contest of attrition that favours NATO’s industrial depth and coalition endurance. The longer it runs, the more the alliance concentrates force, and the less room Ogarkov has to manoeuvre. The Soviet ground thrust has lost momentum in Central Europe, and the maritime picture has shifted from contest to containment.

At sea, Admiral Chernavin’s surface fleets have been cut down to their bones. The capital ships that once anchored Soviet power projection are gone, and the surviving order of battle is a mix of outgunned frigates and submarines that are increasingly outdated, outnumbered, and outhunted. What remains of Soviet naval strategy is no longer about breaking NATO’s lines in open water. It is about surviving long enough to keep Norway supplied, keep airfields active, and keep NATO off balance. The corridors into southern Norway, especially through the Skagerrak approaches, are now lifelines. Lose them, and Fortress Norway becomes a fortress in name only.

NATO has built a layered maritime posture that squeezes those lifelines from every direction. Task Forces LION and THUNDER hold the GIUK Gap, sealing off the Atlantic avenues that once fed Soviet breakout plans. DRAKEN, VALKYRIE, and IRONCLAD push farther north into the Norwegian Sea, taking the fight toward the remaining Soviet bastions and hunting submarines before they can threaten the sea lanes. To the south, NATO has shifted from defence of the North Sea to control of it. The Jutland peninsula is secured, and the alliance is now positioned to turn the Skagerrak into a barrier rather than a contested passage.

MISSION:
That posture is now anchored by two combined NATO task groups operating under SACLANT command. CTG401.1 LEGATUS is the striking arm, led by the French aircraft carrier FS CLEMENCEAU R98 and escorted by French Marine Nationale, Royal Navy, and German Bundesmarine destroyers and frigates. Its job is to patrol, to hunt, and to punish any Soviet littoral traffic that tries to move under the cover of coastal waters and short-range air defence.

CTG401.2 CENTURION is the barrier, an ASW task group led by the helicopter cruiser, ITS VITTORIO VENETO C550, reinforced by ASW frigates from the Royal Navy, free Norwegian forces, the Marina Militare, and the Netherlands’ Koninklijke Marine. With Chernavin’s Black Sea fleet decimated and the Mediterranean secure, Italian units have moved north in strength, reinforcing SACLANT where the pressure is greatest.

The next phase hinges on logistics and air superiority. In the United Kingdom, US airborne troops and Marines are assembling with British and Commonwealth ground forces, preparing for the invasion and liberation of Norway. The planning is methodical and rigorous because amphibious forces do not land into uncertainty. They land after sea lanes are secured and airspace is controlled. NATO’s path to Oslo, Stavanger, and Trondheim begins with the Skagerrak. It begins with stopping the steady flow of supplies and reinforcements from the Baltic into southern Norway.

Ogarkov’s response is cold and calculating. With Chernavin unable to contest NATO’s carrier groups at sea, the Soviet high command is pushing the fight into the air. Marshal of Aviation Aleksandr Nikolayevich Yefimov has moved modern Su-27 Flankers and MiG-29 Fulcrums into southern Norway, aiming to break NATO’s protective fighter umbrella and open the door for Tu-16 strikes against NATO ships in the approaches. Kjevik Airbase at Kristiansand is now a hardened node in that plan, protected by dense SAM coverage and backed by an occupation logistics network built to keep aircraft flying.

NATO’s answer is Operation CONCORDIA. CENTURION will drive west through the Skagerrak to establish an ASW picket supported by allied submarines. LEGATUS will push north, providing CAP and anti-shipping patrols while NATO fighters from bases across France, the Netherlands, and Germany hold the air picture. Nimrods and P-3Cs will widen the ASW net, and SEAD packages stand ready to tear holes in Soviet air defences when the strike window opens. The Skagerrak is about to become a test of whether Soviet air power can still change the course of the war, or whether Europe’s rise has become irreversible. Ubi hostes deficiunt, Europa invicta. Where the enemies fail, Europe is unconquered.

**You may encounter a "CompressedGraphicsFormat RGBA…" error. This is a bug with the hull numbers in the Italian Navy mod. Just hit OK and continue; there is no impact to mission. I have asked the mod creator to apply the fix.**

CAMPAIGN:
The Battle of the Atlantic campaign unfolds in a dark reimagining of 1984, where Cold War tensions erupt into full-scale war. After seizing power in the Kremlin, Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov launches a lightning invasion of Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Soviet forces pour across Scandinavia and surge into the Norwegian Sea, threatening to sever NATO’s transatlantic lifeline and dominate the GIUK Gap. In response, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and allied NATO naval forces mobilise for a desperate stand to preserve control of the seas.

From the fog-choked Baltic to the windswept North Atlantic, players will command Task Forces through a series of missions: from the defence of Gotland and interdiction of Soviet amphibious landings, to high-stakes carrier battles in the mid-Atlantic and convoy escorts across submarine-infested waters, to full-scale amphibious warfare. In this struggle for maritime supremacy, every decision counts—and the future of Europe hangs in the balance.

A 25+ mission linear campaign, The Battle of the Atlantic, is inspired by famous naval battles of WWI and WWII.

Thank you to @Hogthunder, @mrchiaow , @Stoatmaster for testing the mission.