Sultan's Revenge 2025

[fitzpatv]

So to the last in my series on the Standalone Scenario Pack. Can’t say I was looking forward to this one, which comes from the same stable as Pyrpolitis and Chasing Aphrodite and shares several features with them. This time, it’s the Turks facing the steep odds.

Sultan’s Revenge assumes that Greece won the conflict simulated in Aegean in Flames. Still intent on getting a share of the oil and gas reserves in the region, Turkey plans to bring the Greeks to the negotiating table by mounting a surprise strike against key political and air/sea defence targets.

Turkey pins her hopes on a new light aircraft carrier, the Anadolu, which is based on the Spanish Juan Carlos-class helicopter carrier and carries a wing of 16 F-35 stealth fighters. Another 24 of these aircraft are based on the mainland at Dalaman and Balikesir and are supported by older Falcons, tankers, AEW planes and UAVs. Anadolu, escorted by seven frigates and three submarines, has moved to a position SW of Crete from where her planes can hit targets in Athens, including the Greek Parliament and Pentagon. Other high-value targets are Gargoyle battalions on Crete and Patriot SAMs defending Athens and Thessaloniki, plus Exocet batteries covering the exit from the Dardanelles.

Much rests on the F-35 stealth fighters. Can their vaunted abilities enable them to evade the Greek fighters and SAMs and strike their targets?. Six have SOM cruise missiles, which have a range of 130nm, but most are limited to various glide-bombs with a reach between 4 and 60nm, with few exceptions well inside Gargoyle and Patriot engagement range. At the low end of the scale, the GBU-12 is further handicapped by the prevailing low cloud and very heavy rain, which does nothing for its laser guidance system. Ammunition supply issues limit the scope for re-equipping the planes and, in the Anadolu’s case, there might not be time before the carrier comes under heavy attack. Only a quarter of the 40 F-35s are outfitted with a full load of four 60nm AMRAAMs for air combat, though the others carry two each.

Greece has an abundance of resources to call-on. There are at least eight wings of Falcons (most of which have missiles which outrange those on the Turkish F-16s), Mirages and Phantoms, plus AEW planes, Orions and UAVs. A squadron of comparable size is moving to intercept the Anadolu, armed with Exocets which outrange the Turkish ships’ Harpoons. Several Greek submarines are at sea. A comprehensive air defence system covers the Aegean, with Gargoyles and Patriots backed-up by lower-grade SAMs and radars. Although the briefing suggests that the Patriots’ radars have a limited 60 degree engagement arc, in practice they have interlocking zones of fire, making this advice little help.

Forewarned by Eboreg’s earlier post on the scenario, I took care to alter Doctrine for my units to prevent them firing at Opportunity Targets without orders. Unfortunately, I wasn’t careful enough, of which more later…

Given a half-dozen Seahawks aloft at the start, I used these for recon and ASW patrol and kept the fleet’s radars dark to delay being located. These soon detected several surface contacts to the East, but these turned-out to be neutrals. Before long, the enemy squadron appeared in the channel between Crete and the Peloponnese. Sensors also detected the two Gargoyle sites on Crete.

I decided that, as the Anadolu scores 1,500VP for the Greeks, plus another 1,600 for her F-35s, I couldn’t risk leaving her in such an exposed location, so I ordered the fleet to retreat SE. Striking Athens didn’t seem feasible, anyway.

Meanwhile, I sent two expendable Anka UAVs to probe the defences on Lesvos, Limnos and Skyros, which were not emitting. By now, Greek Falcons and Mirages were swarming all over the Aegean. Some of these made a pre-emptive sweep over Western Turkey and destroyed the UAVs while they were still over the mainland, before a shot had been fired.

I got my Wedgetail AEW plane out of the way and decided that two Falcons on CAP over Izmir were out of their depth, sending them SE to Dalaman. Half-a-dozen Greek aircraft pursued them and, although one touched down in time, the other was destroyed over the airfield. Appallingly, the AI then awarded itself 100VP for destroying an F-35, even though it hadn’t!. With the enemy seeming unlikely to attack ground targets, it seemed best to keep all unnecessary planes grounded.

As Turkey does not have a single ground-based SAM in this scenario, that left air defence in the hands of the F-35s. Getting this right involved some micro-management, starting with a pair of planes from Balikesir in the North which were sent to engage the other six or so intruders. I waited for the enemy to get within range before briefly switching-on my radars just long enough to fire, then turned them off again, shot off in a different direction, rinsed and repeated. This enabled air superiority to be established, first in the Northern sector, then further South around Dalaman, with heavy losses to the Greeks and little risk. Like the mythical Hydra, though, the Royal Hellenic Air Force was quickly able to replace its casualties. Greek aircraft score no VP whatsoever.

While this was going on, the enemy mounted a major air strike against the fleet with Exocet-toting Mirages and Phantoms. Needing to concentrate on the air battle over Western Turkey, I left defence to my SAMs. These prevented outright disaster, but the frigate Gediz, detached from the rest of the fleet, was hit and sunk, costing me 250VP. The Greeks also massacred my Seahawks before they could RTB, but this cost no points and I had more in reserve.

With the air battle over Turkey won, I was able to belatedly concentrate on the fleet and launched F-35s to clear away the remaining Greek fighters and UAVs in the area. A minor nuisance was that the carrier-based F-35s didn’t have the 25mm cannon the database credits them with and therefore had to use missiles on the drones.

At this point, the submarine Papanikolis was detected to the NE, trying to cut-off my retreat. With the skies clear for now, two Seahawks launched and sank her after a long and frustrating search, not that this scored me any points.

With some breathing space, I could now think about attacking some targets. I’d found three Exocet sites on the islands of Lesvos, Limnos and Skyros and decided to use the SOM-armed F-35s at Balikesir. As soon as one launched, it immediately blazed away at an irrelevant radar in Thrace as the Opportunity Targets setting kicked-in. I tried again, assigning a second plane to a mission against an Exocet site, but the Opportunity Targets setting overrode this and I wasted my ammo again. At least I destroyed the radar, for what it was worth.

Changing tactics, I scrambled an F-35 with GBU-31 glide-bombs and sent it against the Lesvos site, which was nearby and guarded only by Gecko SAMs, with an obvious hole in their coverage. Two sorties were enough to do the job and actually score 300VP!.

I now turned my attention to the Limnos site, further out and with no gap in its Gecko umbrella. The F-35s got in and out unscathed, disposing of a couple of Falcons which tried to interfere, but the glide-bombs couldn’t get past the SAMs.

Instead, I returned to the SOM planes, this time altering their Doctrine before they launched to adjust the Opportunity Targets setting. This did the trick and the wave of cruise missiles overwhelmed the light SAMs, scoring another 300VP as escorts saw-off enemy fighters.

The remaining Exocet site on Skyros was deep in enemy airspace and guarded by a Patriot battery amongst other things, so I judged it too tough a nut to crack.

The briefing had mentioned possible Exocet sites on Chios and Samothraki, so I took a look at these islands. There was nothing on the latter and just a few light SAMs or AA guns on Chios. This might vary between playthroughs. Having a few Bayraktar UAVs with short-ranged missiles, I used a couple to take down a radar on nearby Samos and bait some fighters for my F-35s, one of which also nailed an AA gun with a spare glide-bomb. One drone was lost in the process.

Things were looking better, but I then had a message to say that the frigate Kemalreis was sinking, costing me 250VP!. I could see no cause on the Message Log and, suspecting an undetected sub, got Anadolu well clear of the vicinity while mounting an ASW search. I then realised that Kemalreis had been hit by the earlier air strike and had just taken a while to sink, which was why the fleet had moving at 8 knots. At least I could speed up now and gain on the pursuing Greek squadron.

To help with this, I sent some F-35s to deal with an AEW plane and Orion that were shadowing me. This involved destroying six escorting enemy Falcons, but the stealth fighters did the job with commendable efficiency. Inevitably, the recon planes were soon replaced.

At this point, the Greeks mounted another big air strike against the fleet. By putting every available F-35 on CAP and using SAMs once the stealth fighters ran out of missiles, I was able to withstand this without taking any damage and at some cost to the opposition.

Having broken away from CAP duty, four F-35s with GBU-53 glide-bombs launched an attack on the Greek fleet. The weapons outrange the enemy naval SAMs, but pack relatively little punch. Still, I scored hits on two ships and this had the desired effect of slowing the pursuit. However, SAMs were running low and I faced a gap of over an hour before I had any more CAP available.

A smaller strike came-in from the NW, but two F-35s were ready just in time and broke it up without the Greeks getting close enough to fire any Exocets.

There were no more strikes and, with no need for any air activity on the mainland front, it could have ended there. However, I was curious to see whether an F-35 with GBU-32 glide-bombs (13nm range) could take-on a Gargoyle site, so decided to experiment. Initially, I sent-in a single plane, which managed to approach undetected, attack and escape unscathed, even though the SAMs easily swatted the glide bombs out of the air.

Encouraged and furnished with data about optimum attack altitude (3,300’ ASL), I sent-in another ten planes. By sheer bad luck, a pack of Greek Falcons and Mirages just happened to come over the target at the worst possible moment and probably detected the stealth fighters using the Mk1 Eyeball. I wasn’t helped by planes in groups being at different altitudes, which meant that some couldn’t easily attack. I nevertheless got most of my munitions away, then sought to evade, having to take planes off Always Evade individually to stop them circling around ad nauseam avoiding missiles until shot down. The enemy air-launched missiles tilted the balance further in favour of the Gargoyles and Gauntlets defending the target and I scored no hits. Two F-35s were lost to fighters as they pulled-out, costing me 200VP. The Greek planes pursued and bravely shot down a Seahawk that was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but were then shredded by CAP, ending the fighting. The evidence was that attacking the Gargoyles, Patriots and political targets in this scenario is unlikely to succeed, leaving the Exocet sites as the only practical source of VP.

So it ended with a score of -200, which is rated Average. It should have been -100, as the AI should not have scored for the Falcon, and would have been +100 had I not experimented at the end. As all these are Average scores, it mattered little really.

Turkey lost 2 frigates, 2 F-35s, a Falcon, 10 choppers and 3 UAVs. Greece lost 2 Exocet sites, a sub, an AEW plane, an Orion, 34 Falcons (and had at least that many left, it seemed), 8 Mirages, 7 Phantoms, 5 UAVs, 2 radars and an AA battery.

Overall, I enjoyed the scenario despite its bugs and inconsistencies. It makes no secret about being hard to the point of impossibility to win, but it is perfectly possible to draw and there is plenty of scope for tactical variation and playing with advanced tech.

That ends my series of reviews of the Standalone Scenarios. Going forward, I intend to alternate Northern Fury with selected scenarios from the Community Pack, so watch this space...