New scenario for testing Pacific Fury #6 Priorities!

[AndrewJ]

And now, the final episode…


A NEW DAY

The Onslow starts the morning right, finally catching up with one of the old patrol frigates captured by the Vietnamese in the 70s, and sinking it with a well-placed Mk48. There’re indications of another pair of Petyas patrolling further up the coast, so she heads in that direction to continue her cleanup operations.

My aircraft settle in for a day of local patrolling, and excruciating long-ranged flights. The Kiwi A-4s and the F-18s (now from Anderson on Guam) set up barrier patrols to the west of our convoys, on missions that can take twelve hours or more, while lightly loaded P-3s continue to plant sonobuoys ahead of the convoys. I’m not planning any major strikes today. Lucrative targets are few, and we should probably save our remaining PGMs for significant operations in the future. Other than some offshore CAP, the pilots are glad to rest.


SUBS!

Mid -morning we suddenly get two goblin contacts within moments of each other. One detection is by sonobuoy, 25 miles WSW of our western convoy, but the other is by Hobart’s passive sonar, right in front of the convoy! Ready SH-70s are scrambled to rush towards the contacts, but even before they get there they’ve already been identified as SSs of some sort. The only question is, whose?

The close sub is passing west to east at eight knots about five miles in front of the convoy, and soon there are passive sonobuoys dropping into the water right in her path. The contact goes right under them, nearly scraping her sides on the dangling transducers, but the sonar operators still can’t tell exactly what she is. The contact angles a few degrees southwards, still crossing on an ESE course, and slows to 5 knots. Is she listening to the convoy? Wouldn’t a Russian have turned towards us and fired by now?

“Torpedoes!” yells the sonar operator, leaning towards his scope and listening intently. They don’t sound like he expected, and they’re much slower too. “Sir, I think they’re Chinese?!” The helicopter swings around towards the contact, dropping two torpedoes on the hostile target. Their seeker heads acquire the target within moments, and its props churn the water as it attempts to accelerate. “Definitely a Ming-class, sir!” Two hits follow moments later, and then a descending train of breakup noises.

There’s silence in the cockpit for a minute. “Are we at war with China, sir?”

“I don’t know.”

The slow-moving Chinese torpedoes are still cruising towards the convoy, but they seem to be angled to the east. Our leading warships dodge left and right, easily clearing the danger area, and the commodore orders a turn to port for the convoy, allowing the weapons to pass blindly by.

Meanwhile, there’s the other sub to consider. The second helicopter and a P-3 arrive and begin dropping passive buoys on her, but they can’t get a positive ID here either, just like the first contact. This time it doesn’t matter. If it’s Russian, it needs to be sunk. If it’s Chinese, well, they’re shooting already, and it needs to be sunk. Three torpedoes later the contact (a Tango, it turns out) is destroyed.

(The Chinese opening fire was actually a hiccup with the ROE, and not intentional, but it made for a very dramatic WTF moment in play, so I’ve left it in here.)


LEKIR

Late in the morning we get an encouraging radio message from the damaged frigate Lekir. The fire is out, and they’re making progress on the flooding too. Two hours later we get another message, confirming that they’ve got the patch in place, it seems to be holding, and they are pumping out the list. The Lekir’s 70 miles behind the convoy, and can only do 9 knots, but her weapons systems are functional, and most of her sensors (including the sonar) still work. If the enemy don’t focus on her she should be able to make it to Hong Kong.





SUBS – AGAIN!

At 0750Z all the sonar operators in the leading warships of our western convoy jerk bolt upright, and start yelling about incoming torpedoes. This time there’s no sign of the sub in advance, just the sudden screaming of high velocity propellors driving torpedoes in at 50 knots.

This guy’s Russian for sure, and quick-reaction helicopters start scrambling throughout the convoy, and dashing towards the probable launch point on full military power. Our leading warships counterfire with Mk46s as they turn left and right to try and dash out of the way of the incoming torps. There’s no hope of outrunning the long-endurance Russian torps, not at this range, and our only hope is to get out of the seeker cone.

The straining helicopters rush to the launch point, dumping sonobuoys as they go, and they’ve soon got a hard active sonar contact. There’s no hesitation, and our torpedoes are in the water as soon as possible. The Victor III has a brief moment to try and run, but that doesn’t work, and he’s down and imploding within moments. That only leaves his torpedoes…

Chatham dodges left and gets clear, Newcastle dodges right, and gets clear, but that leaves Hobart in the middle. The torps seem to have settled down into a clump of two headed 146º, and another one about three miles away headed about 135º. Their seeker cones are oscillating side to side a bit, but mostly point forward, and that might leave a small gap. Hobart plunges forward at flank speed, combing between the two groups of torps, and passing beyond into the safe open sea. The commodore has called for another hard-to-port turn for the convoy, and all the merchants are headed WSW at flank speed. The big torpedoes pass about two miles behind them, and rumble off into the distance.

Are there more subs out there? The helicopters form up into a line abreast and lay a dense active sonobuoy field in front of the convoy, but nothing turns up. Once their buoys are gone, they hurry back to their ships to reload as quickly as possible, while they calmly discuss how the heck the subs keep getting past our SSNs, which are supposedly sanitizing the area ahead of the convoys.


FINAL MOVEMENT

The convoys continue to advance, and as night draws on the Onslow, over by Vietnam, closes in on the next set of Petyas. A Harpoon shot fails, due to a missile malfunction, so the Onslow torpedoes them both over the next half hour. She then sets course for the strait between Hainan and the Vietnamese coast, to see if anything is happening there.

Then, at 1235Z on the 23rd, the convoys start to arrive in the quiet night waters of the Hong Kong destination zone. As the escorts break off to form a protective cordon, the merchants line up and head in towards the final harbour and their assigned berths.

The trip has been a success. Other than the unfortunate Lekir, which is still over 100 miles away from dock, all the convoy ships have made it in to port safely. The sailors probably have a day or two to relax, in relatively safe waters, but where will they be sent next?


Thanks very much for writing another big scenario for us.

[Gunner98]

Thanks for the great writeup Andrew

Enjoyable and informative as always

[tylerblakebrandon]

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

Thanks for the great writeup Andrew

Enjoyable and informative as always

Riveting as always! Hat's off to our esteemed scenario author and our esteemed playtester.

[AndrewJ]

Ahh, a lazy Thanksgiving weekend. That gives a little time to look inside.

Play Impressions

The player’s in an interesting situation here, and I found I had to do a lot of planning to assure myself that I had enough tankers on hand to get the main strikes, particularly the Australians, in and out again at a specific time. It’s certainly an interesting puzzle, especially when all the basing limitations are added to the mix. (A detailed mission planner would shine for this one.) The second day’s strikes were easier to manage, once all the tankers were based in-theatre, and I no longer had to bring big escorts to cope with fighter swarms. Getting P-3 cover took a lot of work, particularly in the late game, when I had to manually unload torpedoes and even some of my sonobuoys over and over again, in order to cover the distant convoys.

I found Cam Ranh Bay to be surprisingly resilient. Yes, I did manage to shut it down with my heavy strike, but I never did manage to completely suppress the air defences, and once my HARM-carrying SEAD planes and jammers were gone, I was very reluctant to press down into the SHORADS envelope. I suppose a concentrated day-strike with all my coalition partners’ Mavericks might have broken the air defence down further, but I doubt I had enough to completely eliminate all of it. So, although Cam Ranh got knocked down, I’m not sure if I’d have been able to keep it down long-term with the carrier gone. Which makes for a much more interesting scenario then a clean sweep of the entire base.

I found myself biasing towards air defence with my lesser forces, and initially most of them were loaded with AAMs, instead of air-to ground ordnance. I was quite worried about large Vietnamese counterattacks and interceptions, and visualized swarms of Fitters and Fishbeds closing on my most forward bases, or chasing my retiring strikes. I suppose if I’d measured a bit more carefully I’d have realized that threat wasn’t quite as plausible as I’d thought.

I definitely fumbled my convoy air-cover. I pretty much knew that the Fitters weren’t at Phang Rang any more, and I’d correctly measured that the coastal airbases were just on the very edge of their range to hit the convoy, but late-game laziness and wishful thinking lead me to judge that ‘just barely in’ meant ‘probably out’. I’d also identified the risk of being ID-ed by Chinese MPA. Still, I did nothing significant to address these dangers, other than sending occasional F-5 patrols. There should have been persistent CAP west of the convoy – no excuses!

I made a few tweaks to the initial setup of the CVBG and replen group, turning on a couple of the better active sonars, and pulling in to a slightly tighter and more defensible formation (particularly the replen group), but other than that I left them alone. The sonars worked well, picking up two subs, and I manually interfered to fire ASROC at one of them, rather than leaving it to the ASW patrols. (Couldn’t resist!)

I was never quite sure about the status of Vietnam. Were we only supposed to be targeting her assets in the immediate context of the strike on Cam Ranh Bay? Or were we supposed to be launching a general offensive against her military assets throughout the region? I aggressively went after her military ships, bases where I thought anti-shipping strike aircraft might be, and any aircraft which came up to challenge these operations, but generally left her other infrastructure alone. Too much flak for too little gain!

The schedule of Zulu-time events in the scenario briefing was very helpful, thanks for that.


Enemy Reactions

This is a reasonably long scenario, but after the initial strike on Cam Ranh Bay the enemy seem to sit passively for most of the next 2.5 days. Other than the Fitter anti-shipping strike, they ride out the blows without reacting. This may be an intentional part of the scenario background, with Vietnam intending to do what little it must, and otherwise trying to refuse combat. However, I wonder if there could be some other activity to show that the enemy is actively taking measures to enhance its defences, and punish player complacency?

Runway repair might be an option. Subtracting 1% damage per hour from one of the damaged runways could bring Cam Ranh Bay back on line in 25 hours (i.e, dropping from 99% damage to less than 75% damage, where the runway will work again), which might be a nice way to simulate repair. The rate can be adjusted as necessary. It could be a very unpleasant surprise to have Russian planes back in the air late in the game if the player ignores the base after hitting the runways once.

Maybe have a pair of MiG-25s and a few spare missiles at one of the nearby airbases, on an ‘Emergency Intercept’ mission which does not become active until after the Alpha Strike and B-52s are no longer available? Imagine the glee when they pounce on a poorly guarded U-2 or a follow-up strike. (Although having Russians at other Vietnamese bases may not be politically palatable in this version of the world.)

In the days after the strikes, the Vietnamese might be able to move in additional SAMs and radars to replace those they have lost in the Cam Ranh Bay area. If I remember rightly, they were adept at rapidly moving SAM sites during the Vietnam War. I don’t know if they have any SA-6s. Perhaps a small SA-3 site (being more mobile than SA-2s) might get set up in the vicinity? Teleport it in a day after the strikes to simulate the initial move, maybe with an intel warning message about possible reinforcement a few hours later, and then activate it half a day after that to simulate setup time?

Maybe some fighters ferry down from the north to fill gaps in the bases around Cam Ranh Bay, and then are assigned to short-ranged intercept missions only?

Fitter strikes from southern bases, directed at Malaysia or Riau islands? Maybe not productive, or politically desirable? (It may be worth adding the rest of the Fitters to the scenario, even if they do not have missions to execute. The player may go looking for them, as I did, and their presence may divert attention or cause other reactions. It felt odd that they weren’t anywhere, after showing up in the briefing.)

Anyway, just some ideas…


Missions

7th Fleet
There are two S-3s, one with a Maritime Surveillance loadout, and one with a Harpoon loadout, which have no mission assigned. (I changed over the maritime surveillance one to a tanker loadout, and put it on the tanker mission, so they would always have one on station.)

The VertRep Black Rover, Vertrep Green Rover, and Vertrep Westralia missions should probably be set to deactivate after the replenishment is complete. The helicopters keep trying to fly longer and longer distances as the groups get further apart, until some finally ran out of fuel getting stuck on the edge of the no-nav zone.

The John Hall’s SH-60 is on the CVBG Med ASW mission, but it has a Penguin loadout.

China
Had you wanted the Badgers at Lingshui to be added to the ELINT mission? At the moment there are no planes on that mission.

USSR
The MiG-25BMs with AS-11 ARMs have no mission. Had you intended them to be on the Convoy Strike mission?

Vietnam
The Be-12s at Kien An have no loadout or mission.


Events, Actions, Triggers, etc.

The Piers Dmg event keeps activating each time fire damage is caused to a pier. Since piers can burn for days, this can lead to hundreds or thousands of extra victory points over several days. I turned the event off after a few hours. I think you would need individual non-repeatable events for each pier to get the effect you want. (Each pier scores once, and only once, when it goes over X% damage.)

There is no event to revert the Alpha Strike aircraft to AI control. There is an action to do so, but no trigger or event.

The B-52 Revert event gives the following error message: Lua script execution error: [string “B-52 Revert”]:3 ‘then’ expected near ‘than’. The event does not work, and the player keeps control.

Had you intended there to be a points loss event for sinking the Chinese sub, or destroying other Chinese units?

Had you intended there to be point scoring events for sinking warships? They are not the primary objective of the mission, but if a guns-only MiG-17 clone is worth something, then presumably a warship with a large crew and multiple weapons systems would be too. Probably not the picket junks, but things like the Petyas, and definitely that wretched Grisha, which kept messing my flights up!


Miscellaneous

China is a playable side.

As mentioned, China’s forces are currently weapons tight instead of weapons hold, which will cause the Ming and Luda to attack if the Chinese consider the player side hostile. Looking back through the saves, the Chinese went hostile to me around 2025Z on the first night, when my first F-14 sweep shot down some Vietnamese MiG-21s. No Chinese units were in the area. Running it again, it looks like the moment the Vietnamese see an incoming missile and judge it to have come from one of the players’ planes, they consider the entire SE Asia Command to be hostile.

When this happens the Chinese side immediately considers the entire SE Asia Command side to be hostile too.

The Commercial side (which is only biologicals) could be set to awareness level: Blind to save a little processor time.

There are already losses in the log at the start of the scenario, so the Losses & Expenditures log needs to be cleared.

Would there be any Philippine air search radars up on Luzon, or have they been rendered inoperable by the internal conflicts?

Wow, shooting dozens and dozens of lesser MiGs really eats up the Sidewinder supplies! I was running low or running out at several bases. Command’s insistence that ‘Your F-18s must have Sidewinders to carry bombs!’ really starts to get in the way at this point.

If possible, upgrade to DB3000 v490. The VLAD sonobuoys are missing their datalink in 489.

It’s going to be really tough to distinguish Chinese from Russian subs, except when they shoot or move fast. In tests it took the very best sonobuoys (VLADs) literally right on top of cruising Mings (8 kts) or Tangos (5 kts) to ID them. The lesser passive sonobuoys don’t seem to be able to do it at all.


Typos, formatting, etc.

Side briefing: “an old friend from staff collage.” (college)
Side briefing: “Neither the carrier battle group or the replenishment group” (nor)
Side briefing: “1800 3x B-24 Ready” (B-52. Although B-24s would certainly be interesting too!)
Side briefing: "1300 earliest Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian Daylight only strike AC ready" (1400)
Intrep Vietnam: “and are know to deploy” (known)
Msg – Chinese Subs: “must be very decerning” (discerning)
Msg - Sitrep 21 Feb: “the threat of the amphibs on the lose has certainly got people attention in the US.” (loose, people’s)
Msg - Sitrep 21 Feb: “One of the Rover’s will head” (Rovers)
Msg – Sitrep 23 Feb” “part of 15th Wing but is working out of Kadina” (Kadena)
Trigger – USSR Port Crain Destr (Crane) (probably not visible to player)
Trigger – Vietnam Port Crain Destr (Crane) (probably not visible to player)
Event – Port Crain Destr (Crane) (this one is visible in the scoring log)

[Gunner98]

OK

At long last here is an update to this scenario.

Many changes and several interesting punishments should you engage Chinese targets.

Looking forward to any further comment

[towgunner]

new update will not load, says DB does not exist

[Gunner98]

OK I updated to the latest DB yesterday. Perhaps the latest is in the Beta and not the official update. Not sure.

So the scenario is using DB3000 v492 and the latest update I am using is Command v1.04 Build 1147.39

Can you confirm if that is the issue, and if so either you can update or I can try and dial back the DB to whichever one you have.

B

[TempestII]

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

OK I updated to the latest DB yesterday. Perhaps the latest is in the Beta and not the official update. Not sure.

So the scenario is using DB3000 v492 and the latest update I am using is Command v1.04 Build 1147.39

Can you confirm if that is the issue, and if so either you can update or I can try and dial back the DB to whichever one you have.

B

Loads fine for me (I'm on Beta 1147.39).

[maverick3320]

Bart,

I'm playing Pacific Fury #6 right now. Couple things I've noticed so far:

1. The auto missions for the AI CVBG are set to "refuel", which leads them to flying half the way down to Australia to hit up the tankers I have setup to ferry the Hornets and 'Varks. The first time around it wrecked my whole (fragile) logistical train when the Prowlers, Tomcats, and Vikings all hit up my refuel assets, since tankers are at a bit of a premium early on. Partially my fault since I was fast-timing it and only half paying attention.

2. The auto ASW strike mission set up for the AI CVBG has a range of 150nm. Normally not a big deal but the CVBG gets within 200km ish of Cam Rahn Bay, leading to some single Vikings flying nearly all the way to the port to investigate a potential sub contact and then getting shot down. Knocking that distance down to 100nm or even 50nm would keep some more of those Vikings alive.

[Gunner98]

Thanks Maverick, great points and easy to fix.

Cheers

[ryszardsh]

And the v 1.2 file available above has in the zip shemya shakedown versions, not PF6 Priorities...
RAS

[Gunner98]

OK that is strange. Here is the PF 6 Priorities v1.2 file

[maverick3320]

Just got to day two on this scenario. Looks like this suggestion was taken to heart:

"In the days after the strikes, the Vietnamese might be able to move in additional SAMs and radars to replace those they have lost in the Cam Ranh Bay area. If I remember rightly, they were adept at rapidly moving SAM sites during the Vietnam War. I don’t know if they have any SA-6s. Perhaps a small SA-3 site (being more mobile than SA-2s) might get set up in the vicinity?"

I have the entire wave of F-111s and F18s trying to attack again, and overnight the Vietnamese have moved in...not a small SA-3 site, but four SA-11 sites. NATO has no anti-radar weapons at this point, and with the Shilkas and SA-13 SAMs still standing from the day 1 strike (even fitting out every carrier Hornet with max HARMs I couldn't get the entire SAM network) there is a massive layered SAM net again over Cam Rahn Bay, essentially shutting down any type of follow up strike.

Perhaps some sort of intel of this happening in the briefing? I think most players probably go for the runways and SAMs in day one, leaving the port for day two. I don't know if it's feasible to strike all three on the first day since basically all NATO's assets are focused on knocking out the air defense network.

[Gunner98]

Yes, I can add some int on that. Maybe either add a few more HARMs or scale back the reinforcements.

Tx

[maverick3320]

Bart,

Did this scenario make it into the latest CSP?

[Gunner98]

Good point. Well spotted.

No it has not, I must have completely forgotten about it. Cannot do anything about it for the next month or so but will upload it to the CSP thread as soon as I'm home.

B

[maverick3320]

Good point. Well spotted.

No it has not, I must have completely forgotten about it. Cannot do anything about it for the next month or so but will upload it to the CSP thread as soon as I'm home.

B

No worries. Looking forward to more Fury scenarios!

[Gunner98]

Good point. Well spotted.

No it has not, I must have completely forgotten about it. Cannot do anything about it for the next month or so but will upload it to the CSP thread as soon as I'm home.

B

No worries. Looking forward to more Fury scenarios!

OK here is an updated version and I am sending to the CSP right now.