Falklands Bonus Scenario 1 - The Empire Strikes Back 1/5/82

[fitzpatv]

This scenario assumes that HMS Ark Royal was upgraded instead of being retired in 1979 and that HMS Invincible was never built. As a result, Ark Royal accompanied Hermes to the Falklands.

You can only play the British side (though Falkland Island Civilians are shown as a selectable side!). Your mission for 1st May 1982 is to mount strikes on the Argentine air bases at Port Stanley and Goose Green, beginning with recon flights, then SEAD, then sorties with iron bombs and rockets.

To do this, you have Task Group 317.8, consisting of the carriers Ark Royal and Hermes, 4 DDGs, 5 frigates and 3 auxiliaries. Hermes still employs the Harriers used in earlier scenarios, but Ark Royal has a mix of Phantoms (with Sky Flash and Sparrow SARH missiles) and Buccaneers (some with Martel ARMs and others with bombs). The Ark also has three Hawkeyes for AEW and the task group is well-served for ASW choppers.

The Argentines have two Exocet DDGs (a Gearing and a Sumner), a Salta SSK, some Pucara and MB-326 light attack planes on the islands and Daggers, Canberras and Neptunes on the mainland. The air bases are warded by Tigercat and Roland SAMs, Blowpipe MANPADs and some AA guns.

1/5/82 02:00L: It was quickly apparent that Hermes’s Harriers would be unable to conduct any strikes until late in the game, as they are day-only and the six-hour scenario begins at 2am, local time. The only way to get any recon done was to change two Buccaneers on Reserve loadouts to Ferry, which got them ready in 30 minutes, at which point I sent one to Stanley. It picked-up emissions from a radar and three AA batteries but, initially, detected no SAMs. Dropping below the cloud layer to 1,900’ located a Roland site while keeping well clear of it out to sea.

Meanwhile, a Hawkeye launched and found the two Argentine destroyers screening the islands to the N of Stanley. Two Lynxes with Sea Skuas were sent to attack them.

03:00L: The Lynxes struck their targets, leaving the Gearing dead in the water and the Sumner limping along at 2 knots. It then proved very difficult to get the choppers to RTB – I had to give them manual movement orders towards their hosting frigates (Broadsword and Brilliant) before they would comply and they only just made it. By default, they wanted to stooge around at 200’ (no doubt their standard database setting). Worse was to follow.

Three SEAD Buccaneers sortied and took-out the radar for 50VP, the Roland site for two helpings of 40VP (one per component – a probable scenario bug) and also destroyed an AA battery at Goose Green and damaged another at Stanley for 0VP. I kept one plane circling with my remaining Martel in case more SAMs manifested themselves later and launched two more Buccaneers with iron bombs to flush them out. The score of +130 was already a Minor Victory.

04:00L: The first Buccaneer strike plane bombed some ammo shelters at Stanley, getting missed by a Tigercat and Blowpipe that the OODA loop wouldn’t let the loitering SEAD plane attack before they vanished once more. Appallingly, the 1,000lb bombs just hung in the air instead of falling on the targets!!! The other Buccaneer repeated the process with the same chronic result...

Meanwhile, a Phantom intercepted a Neptune patrolling W of the task force, botching my instruction to Auto Engage and having to be nursemaided manually into making the kill, which scored nothing.

05:00L: Though the Buccaneers RTB’d without any bother, the Phantom (which had A2A missiles left) stubbornly refused to do so. I flew it manually back in the direction of Ark Royal.

There was clearly no point in risking aircraft trying to bomb the islands, as bombs simply didn’t work any more.

08:00L: It was impossible to get the Phantom to RTB, despite experiments with Unassigning it, putting it on a Mission and tinkering with its Doctrine settings. Eventually, it ditched, but aircraft losses don’t seem to cost any VP in this scenario.

Right at the end, the Salta turned-up SW of the task group and tried to torpedo the Coventry, but fired too early and the destroyer was able to escape at Flank. A posse of choppers then swarmed the sub and sank it for 50VP, taking the score to +180 and a Major Victory.

The UK lost a fighter (to a bug).

Argentina lost an SSK, an MPA and 7 ground elements, with two DDGs seriously damaged.

Overall, though, the bugs (presumably introduced when I installed v.1567.6) were the real winners. I’m really surprised that no-one else has encountered anything similar and posted it on the Forum. It seems unlikely that the RTB and iron bomb problems were scenario-specific. Any advice welcome.