Falklands 7 - The Slot 11/5/82

[fitzpatv]

Another small, quick Falklands scenario – they do make a nice change from the epics in other series. You can only play the British side.

As part of the recon before the British landings on the Falklands, the frigate HMS Alacrity surveyed the entrance to Falkland Sound, which runs N-S between the two main islands, assessing navigability and checking for mines. This involved sailing the length of the channel and back again, with several dangers along the way. There is also a time limit, as you have to be back with the main task force by dawn, owing to the threat of Argentine air strikes. In practice, this corresponds to the 8-hour scenario time limit, though the briefing misleadingly refers to 03:00L, which is just 5 hours in and pretty-much impossible.

Alacrity is a decent all-rounder, with a Sea Cat battery, Exocets, a Lynx with Sea Skuas and a 114mm gun. She also has sonar, including a bottom profiler for mines, which you really need to switch on.

11/5/82 22:00L: I began at a weather-limited maximum speed of 23 knots to reach the narrows at the N end of the Sound, which is no more than 2nm wide here, before slowing to Cruise. As the chopper is not on quick turnaround, I kept her in reserve and relied on radar for scouting.

Not long afterwards, the frigate was fired upon by an Argentine 105mm howitzer battery on the E shore. The guns were at their maximum range of 6nm, so I tried to open the distance to take advantage of the superior 10nm range of my own guns. The Argentines then moved to close the distance. At this point, close to the shore of West Falkland, we were notified of a mine ahead (usefully, the game warns you when one is detected and gives you 10VP for it). I slowed to 5 knots and steered to avoid the mine, as my gunners demolished the enemy battery, scoring another 10VP. We took a hit, which did 1.4% damage to the frigate and took-out one of her four Exocet mounts.

23:00L: Not long afterwards, we detected a ship ahead which, from her radar signature, was an Argentine Intrepida-class patrol gunboat, armed with 76mm and 40mm guns and Seeaal torpedoes. It seemed best to send the Lynx to prosecute before she got close enough to hurt us.

Another mine was spotted ahead and avoided for 10 more VP.

The helicopter sank the Intrepida, needing all four Sea Skuas to do so. This scored another 20VP and took it to a Minor Victory at +50.

An enemy supply ship, the Islas de los Estados, was then located beyond the foundering gunboat and was duly sunk with our remaining Exocets, despite the inevitable malfunction. Her logistical value scored us 50VP, making it a Major Victory at +100.

01:00L: Once we were confident that we were out of the mined zone, we proceeded at 18 knots, trying to strike a balance between safety and speed. The entire Sound is quite shallow, so we knew we were taking a risk, but being caught unsupported by aircraft after dawn was, perhaps, even more of a worry. In the event, we found no more mines, keeping to mid-channel and reaching the marked Patrol End Zone for another 100VP, which took it to a Triumph. Orders arrived to re-join the fleet, so there was no need to sail on further and recce the enemy positions around Fox Bay, as suggested in the briefing.

04:40L: Following the same route in reverse, Alacrity sailed at 23 knots to the vicinity of the detected mines, then slowed to Creep and eased her way past them, finally speeding-up again to reach the Exit Zone N of the Sound within the scenario time limit for 50 more VP.

There was certainly scope for things to go wrong here but, like all the Falklands scenarios I’ve played so far, this was relatively easy. It’s a good DLC for new players to cut their teeth on and a fairly relaxing one (so far), for the more experienced.

This was also the first game I’ve played under the recent 1527.1 update. No issues in this scenario, at least.