Stand Up 2011

[fitzpatv]

My first reaction to seeing this scenario was to groan, coming as it did so soon after Southern Fury. It's another UK-Argentina affray in the Falklands. But, despair not, it is sufficiently different to provide a new-ish experience. Forces on both sides are scaled-down from Southern Fury, you can play both sides and there is no invasion attempt. In this scenario, Argentina is still a democracy and the Government in Buenos Aires is seeking a propaganda coup to give it the edge in upcoming elections. They hope that, by demonstrating Britain's inability to defend the islands, they can prompt a handover of control.

The British forces have been pared to the bone by defence cuts and the war in Iraq and all they have in-theatre amounts to a single frigate (the Portland) and a quartet of Typhoons, plus tanker and chopper support. The tanker Wave Ruler, notionally escorted by the patrol boat Clyde, is heading into Port Stanley from the SE and needs protection.

An Argentine task force comprising two destroyers and three corvettes (all with Exocets) is at sea, along with the submarine Santa Cruz. These ships are supported by Orion and Turbo Tracker patrol planes, Super Etendards and A-4 Fightinghawks.

I decided that Portland would be most unlikely to survive a Super Etendard attack with her short-ranged Sea Wolf SAMs, so I switched her radars off and used her Merlin chopper for recon. I had to be sparing with my CAP, having just the four planes (two of which carried a mixed loadout of AMRAAMs and 4nm range Paveways).

About 1.5 hours in, the Merlin detected three obvious Argentine warships approaching from the W. When these went to 25 knots, I deemed their behaviour warlike enough to deserve a pre-emptive strike. Outranging them with her Harpoons, Portland sank the destroyer Almirante Brown and the frigate Espora, but the destroyer Heroina got away with some damage which cut her speed to 11 knots. Out of missiles, Portland disengaged. I was keen to get her to the Stanley approaches in case the Santa Cruz was lurking there.

A Turbo Tracker came-in from the SW and an Orion from the NE. Neither lasted long against my duty Typhoon. Judging the Heroina to be out of SAMs, I sent the plane against her with Paveways to make the most of her sortie. To be on the safe side, I bombed from high altitude, which was probably a mistake as all four of the short-ranged weapons missed.

Two more corvettes, the Spiro and Robinson, were then detected to the S of the islands, trying to intercept Wave Ruler and Clyde. Scrambled my second Paveway-armed Typhoon. The ships had no effective air defence and a Paveway each sent them to the bottom. Unfortunately, I then got cocky and tried to finish-off the Heriona with my remaining two Paveways. It turned-out that the ship still had Aspide SAMs left, after all. Even then, I could have pulled clear, but foolishly pushed my luck and lost the plane.

One of my two air-to-air-only Typhoons bagged another Orion and Turbo Tracker. Probably worth it to deny the enemy intel and reduce the chances of a strike.

At this point, the Santa Cruz was detected near the Portland's initial position, dubiously using her air search radar at or near the surface. Portland was still near enough to close and engage with her Merlin, which efficiently terminated the sub.

Once my remaining Paveway Typhoon had re-readied, I sent her against the Heroina. To my disbelief, she STILL had Aspides left and I was lucky to spoof a pair of them. Decided to play safe and disengaged to a CAP position.

Nothing much else happened and I ran down the clock for a final, non-judgemental score of 3,290, which surely amounts to an emphatic British victory.

I'll play this again as the Argentines and add to this post once this is done. Coincidentally, I had quite a good holiday in Argentina in 2011. Brits are actually very welcome there, but they do like to discuss the Malvinas issue. When my hotel manager in Buenos Aires heard I was flying to Ushuaia, he asked me if I was going there to finish the war!. Had to laugh...

[Eboreg]

I should probably note that during the C:MANO days, the Argentines had even less assets for this scenario. Even so, I found that the biggest problem for the British was trying not to run out of ordnance. When I found all of the ways the Argentines were buffed in the C:MO version while keeping the British side similar, I almost gave up because I felt that this scenario was too biased in favor of the Argentines. Of course, I recently managed to wipe out the Argentines as the British but that's a completely different matter.

[fitzpatv]

OK, so I've now played it as the Argentines. Their orders are to sink the Portland, Wave Ruler and Clyde to make a political statement. Issues are that:

- Santa Cruz can't go near Portland until her Merlin is eliminated and can't reach the other ships, period
- British Typhoons are deadly to the Argentine air force and to the Spiro and Robinson
- Portland outranges the Almirante Brown group, so a missile fight is a low percentage game
- Need to catch Wave Ruler and Clyde before they can make port
- It also turns out that none of the 8 A4 Fightinghawks carry Sidewinders, making them even less use than I'd thought in air combat
- Worse, there are just four Super Etendards and they carry a miserable one Exocet each, giving them little chance of getting past Portland's Sea Wolf defences. I'd over-rated them.

A couple of bugs quickly became apparent. First, the side briefing understates the Argentine forces, no doubt reflecting the old CMANO situation mentioned in Eboreg's post, above. More seriously, I was astonished to find that I had exact info on the locations of all enemy and neutral units at the start (including the large number of submarine false contacts). The latter needs fixing, as most players neither need nor want that kind of help. Still, I knew where the Brits were anyway after playing them....

Not a great start as Portland almost immediately detected Santa Cruz (which was at Creep speed, just over the layer) at a range of over 23nm despite heading away from her at 25 knots and cavitating. I know she has a good towed array but this was, shall I say, mightily impressive, especially as she couldn't do it for me at Creep speed. Could be related to the bug above. Her Merlin made straight for me and diving deep and going to flank did me no good at all.

A Paveway Typhoon then went for the Brown group, which was keeping well clear of the Portland. As I'd found against just one damaged destroyer, this isn't a good idea. Even so, I needed 10 Aspide shots to destroy the plane.

I mounted a series of individual Turbo Tracker and Fightinghawk strikes against the Wave Ruler duo, with Hercules tanker support, aiming to overload the remaining three Typhoons (I also had an Orion loitering to the N of the islands as a potential distraction). Only one Typhoon actually tried to intervene, downing a Fightinghawk before returning to base. My strikes left both British ships afloat, but dead in the water. Spiro and Robinson closed, finished the job with Exocets, then disengaged to a position S of Tierra del Fuego.

Meanwhile, I decided I might as well try to hit Portland with the Super Etendards. Two strikes, over nine hours apart, failed completely to get past the SAMs.

There wasn't much point in trying anything else, so I ran down the clock for a final score of 2,190. Whether the oiler, patrol boat and Typhoon were worth a sub and a Fightinghawk would be for Buenos Aires to decide.

[Eboreg]

Are you sure you didn't play the Argentine side of the scenario in the Scenario Editor?

[fitzpatv]

Definitely wasn't. In fact, I've never been in the Scenario Editor.