[UPDATE] New Scenario: Hold the Line

[Gunner98]

OK,

Here is hopefully the final version prior to release to the community, mostly just an update but have made quite a few of the NATO pilots Ace status. New version here and in OP.

Changes are:

-Upgraded most of the 493rd FS and 11 Sqn RAF to Ace - thanks to their action in previous scenarios
-Sprinkled 1 or 2 Aces into each USN Ftr Sqn
-Adjusted the briefing to address: Command; Satellite; and Tanker concerns
-Updated to build 678 (man this game just gets better and better!) and DB3000 build 429

As always any comments critiques and criticisms welcome.

Enjoy

[RobotCriminal]

Wow I have to give serious credit where it is due, this is an awesome job getting the "feel" down for WW3 scenario. I've been playing for like 4 hours but I'm not even sure I've cracked the surface, there goes my free time this week [:D].

So far I've managed to perform a tactical masterstroke and sink the Kirov out of the eastern group rather than the CV I was actually aiming for [8D].

Only bug I found so far was that I think some of the reference points (set to rotating) for the initial BARCAP might be set for a helo rather then the CVBG. You can see them swing around pretty fast right after you start the mission. Not a huge deal though, I just re-assigned them and moved them back.

[RobotCriminal]

OK a little update, enjoying this quite a bit.

I am a bit over 6 hours (in game time, though pretty much irl time as well [;)]) in. Right off the bat I started loading harpoons onto whatever A-6 weren't carrying them (except for the 2 ship of TALD slingers, felt those would come in handy). Also re-arranged the CV's ASW screens a bit more to my liking and changed the formation a bit for sprint and drift ASW coverage by the DDs and FFs as I am expecting enemy subs to be a PITA though I haven't really encountered any thus far.

I decided to play this mission much more conservatively then I typically might, all the extra "fluff" and the excellent mission briefings have led to excellent immersion and gone a long way toward making me want to "play it as it was designed." I felt it would be very important to keep my own losses to an absolute minimum to prevent a situation where the Big E gets its air wing mauled and is unable to prevent the SAG's from running roughshod over the SLOCs.

I spent about the first hour just sizing up the enemy to see if I could get a good bearing on the location of the two SAGs, but the extreme jamming made things a bit rough here. Once I got access to the F-15s out of Scotland, I took 2 four-ships up to try to clean up the picture east of Iceland by smacking the jammers down, and successfully knocked out a few as well as located the East SAG (which promptly vomited up a squadron of Su-33s) but on the way out my setting for an AB egress didn't take apparently and I lost 2 F-15s for it. I had a little bit of success slinging AIM-54s at some of the closer western jammers, but the north western ones are going to be a tough nut to crack.

With the East SAG located I then launched 2 4-ship flights of harpoon loaded A-6s that had just finished readying as they had the legs to get out there, backed with a tomcat escort and an EA-6 riding shotgun. The EA-6 proved to be a beast, and allowed the F-14s to basically slap the Flankers out of the way (I got the feeling they could hardly lock anything, the EA-6 was only about 40nm from the fight and just frying their radars), and the A-6 promptly unloaded their harpoons.

At the Kirov.

Instead of the Varyag.

I didn't set the weapon allocations to "use half" to account for the jamming like an idiot and the poor Kirov ate something like 12-15 direct hits before going down. Welp.[:D]

Anyway at this point things are pretty tricky, I have quite a bit of anti air assets, but am really thin on ASuW as my land based assets are non-existent in this regard. I have a very firm lock on the East SAG but not a whole lot to hit it with until the SLAM loaded F-18Cs get up there, and even then they will need to hit a tanker somehow to make it far enough. The west SAG is tucked up in Satan's armpit between Iceland and Greenland and I'm afraid to really go after it.

I am basically waiting for my SSNs to get in position at this point, but my experience with Soviet SAGs is that usually thats almost a 1 shot deal as you end up with a rocket propelled torp on top of you as soon as you launch so I'm not super optimistic. I would really kill for a harpoon stockpile at Goose Bay for the p-3 force there or something, or some land based strike (this might be impossible for story reasons). I am far from the greatest player though so IDK.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text, but for the amount of work that clearly went into this scen I felt it deserved it (and would appreciate any tips [;)] )

Butchers bill thusly (none of the tomahawks made it through fyi, and some of those USSR losses like the Mig-31s are due to fuel issues):

SIDE: NATO
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
2x F/A-18A Hornet
2x F-15C Eagle
1x F-14D Tomcat
1x F-14A Tomcat
1x Falcon 20F-ECM


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
84x AN/SSQ-53B DIFAR
58x AN/SSQ-62B DICASS
40x CA/SSQ-523 CASS [AN/SSQ-50]
1x AN/SSQ-77A VLAD
80x SSQ-963A CAMBS III
108x RGM-109C Tomahawk Blk II TLAM
93x DSTV 7A LOFAR [TSM 8030]
31x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
4x AIM-7M Sparrow III
44x AIM-120A AMRAAM
6x Generic Flare Salvo [3x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
40x CA/SSQ-550 DIFAR [AN/SSQ-53A]
75x DSTV 4M LOFAR [TSM 8010]
8x AIM-54C Phoenix
92x SSQ-947 Julie Active Range-Only [AN/SSQ-47]
34x AIM-7P Sparrow III
13x AIM-9M Sidewinder
32x AGM-84D Harpoon IC



SIDE: Warsaw Pact
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
4x MiG-29 Fulcrum C
1x Tu-16Ye Badger K
1x Tu-16P Badger J
1x Tu-16P Badger L
9x Su-33 Flanker D
8x MiG-31B Foxhound
2x Su-27S Flanker B
4x Su-24MP Fencer F
1x Ka-29RLD Helix
2x Ka-27PL Helix A
1x Be-12PL Mail
1x Su-27S Flanker B
2x Ka-27PL Helix A
1x Ka-25Ts Hormone B
1x RKR Kirov [Pr.1144 Orlan]


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
142x RGB-75 [Basic Search, Passive Omni]
34x RGB-NM-1 [Passive Omni]
58x AA-10 Alamo C [R-27RE, LR SARH]
118x AA-10 Alamo A [R-27R, MR SARH]
16x AA-9 Amos [R-33, SARH]
151x SA-N-6a Grumble [5R55RM]
89x SA-20a Gargoyle [48N6]
88x SA-10b Grumble [5V55R]
31x SA-12a Gladiator [9M83]
8x AA-11 Archer [R-73]
14x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
41x Generic Chaff Salvo [4x Cartridges]
1x AA-8 Aphid [R-60TM]
2x Generic Flare Salvo [2x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
3x Generic Flare Salvo [4x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
10x SA-N-11a Grisom [9M311K]
29x AK-130 130mm/54 Twin Frag Burst [2 rnds]
20x PK-10 Chaff [SR-50]
10x PK-2 Chaff [TSP-47]
5x SA-N-9 Gauntlet [9M330-2 Kinzhal]
28x SA-N-4b Gecko [9M33M3]
24x AK-630M 30mm/65 Gatling Burst [400 rnds]

[Gunner98]

Thanks for the feedback. It seems you're doing well, conservative is the way to go in the early phase of this one, if you stick too many body parts out they may get cut off [:D].

The TLAM strike will only work if you do a SEAD/AAW push, and it might be a bit early in the scenario for that. You have sunk one of 6 major units which is a good job. Survival and shielding the SLOC should win it for you but hitting 2-3 of the major ships will push it into Triumph.

The ASuW assets will have to wait for later scenarios. Storyline for this one is that both sides withdraw exhausted ready for Scenario 9.1 Eisenhower moves North and 9.2 Changing of the Guard where the Vinson covers the Big E's withdrawal followed by 9.5 Here Comes the Cavalry. Kef gets special treatment in 10 Ant Eaters Revenge and 10.5 Buff's Away.

Thank you for your comments and hope you continue to enjoy.

B

[magi]

Geezzz... Robo.. your doing good... i havent started this version yet... you were very daring... i was far more conservative... i changed my CVBG course to south east in hopes of extending/burdening reds operational range while shorting mine... shifting air assets to lossiemouth... and diverted my assets going north to the south... my plan is to play an aggressive defensive game till i whittled them down.... the way i was doing it required me to an unusual amount of attention to my tanker assets... which were one of the most critical platforms i had..... then i stopped and waited for this update and played Gunners other scenario's in some sequence.... however unless their is some major difference in 2.2... this will still be my general plan...

Arent Gunners scenario"s a marvel.. just bloody wonderful.....

[Flankerk]

Played through and manage a triumph at about 1100 points.
Kept the CVBG at creep which helped it pick off several subs.
Did a TLAM strike on Keflavik which you rightly say failed utterly!
The Northern group eventually destroyed almost in a single strike, oddly enough Harpoon's then SLAM.
The Eastern group managed to get one torpedo into a CV from Chicago, and also sank the Slava, but a pretty poor return for losing the LA.

Need to cross check my database. The Trafalgar class had no Spearfish which at this date probably isn't correct?
The LA subs also seemed to have six tubes unless that's a modification for the timeline?

Massive scenario, tends to run at a decent speed when the TLAM's arent on their way in. Messages worked out well.

[Gunner98]

Flankerk

Well done. I suspect that the Harpoons acted like MLADs and cleared away for the SLAMs

Interested in you observations on the subs. I didn't make any mods to the LA.

Once the Sub issues are resolved, I think this one might finally be ready to go

B

[RobotCriminal]

Yeah I figured the 6 tube LAs were a modification of yours.

Also noticed in the editor that the bison tankers at Kef don't have a tanker loadout, which is preventing them from launching atm.

[Gunner98]

Thanks for that - probably why we're still getting Mig-31 out of fuel crashes...

Will fix. I'll also check the LA, should be a normal one.

B

[RobotCriminal]

NP, hopefully this thing is ready for release soon as I am having quite a bit of fun with it.

MISSION SPOILERS BELOW
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Since my last update, quite a few subs have been uncovered and sunk by my MPAs. The ones near the SLOC were basically out there on their own and it was only a matter of time until the French Atlantiques sniffed them out. There may be more out there but I have quite the buoy field down in the path of the convoys so I am not overly concerned unless they deployed an Oscar down that far or something, which is doubtful as they have CVBGs to worry about. One of the Victors annoyingly managed to take down a Canadian P-3 with a SAM after it got torpedoed and surfaced.

Up near the Enterprise the air situation is an uneasy stand-off with both me and the Soviets maintaining local air superiority over our carriers allowing airborne ASW efforts so again a few subs were found by S-3s and SH-60s and sunk.

On my side I have the Portsmouth and San Juan headed north to meet the western SAG, and as both closed to within 70nm of the screening Udaloy II I launched the 4 harpoons available on each sub at it hoping to make a hole for me to sneak the subs through. Those from the Portsmouth arrived first since I suck and can't time things properly, and while 3 were taken out by point defence the 4th splashed 30ft short and showered the Udaloy with shrapnel and some underwater blast damage.

This was all that I needed, as the damage caused her to put up much less of a fight against the next 4 from the San Juan. Two leakers impacted directly, and she burned for a while until the damage control team threw in the towel 30 minutes later and she sank. Additionally the RN Talent scored a harpoon hit against an Udaloy I out of the east SAG but it wasn't enough to sink it.

However, as this was ongoing it appears that despite strict EMCON (imaginary order: "If you don't have wings don't even turn on your microwave." -signed Admiral Robo) the enemy got a good enough bearing on my group from somewhere (probably a sub) to launch a regiment sized 30-40 ship Su-24 strike loaded with ARMs and short range missiles, some fighter escorts, and some surface launched supersonic ASMs at me.

Uh oh.

I have learned from past mistakes and double checked to make sure "return when winchester" was set to off, and sent anything I had available to meet it, which unfortunately wasn't nearly as much as I would have liked as many were still re-arming and re-fueling from my earlier ASW strike and ECM hunting. On the bright side of things, I had been clutching onto my 6 capable AMRAAM F-18s at alert 5 as a reserve in case of such scenarios.

However, after my F-14s and -18s ran down to foul language or throwing their flight manuals at the bandits and vampires, it was clear that some of them were going to make it through.

I flicked on the CVBGs radar and ECM knowing the gig was up anyway, and my escort promptly pulled their skirts up and got ready to put up a wall of Sea Sparrows and Standards. With 3 CGs at my disposal, I managed to limit the damage to 1 hit to the Spruance VLS class O'Bannon from what I think was probably an ARM. She survived, but no longer has any functioning AAW capability and I shuffled her to a safer place in the screen. For the fitters, it was an utter massacre, I'm not even sure any of them survived the attack run.

Imagine the death star attack scene from star wars but with Luke Skywalker keeling over from a heart attack or something, I don't even know. On the down side of things, I expended nearly half my stock of SAMs which hopefully doesn't come back to bite me.



Current status:

Western SAG continues to steam south short an ASW destroyer, East SAG is less of a threat 500nm from the big E and short a Kirov. My 12 newly acquired AIM-120 capable F-18s have been tanked north and are a couple hundred NM out to take over the BARCAP within the hour. Strikers are about 2 hours from ready for the most part, though I don't really have enough harpoons to take out everything coming at me so I will need to choose targets carefully.

I think the plan will be to send my 8 TASMs at the remaining Udaloy in the west SAG, hopefully allowing my 2 SSNs to sneak in to torpedo range on the big capital ships behind it. For the east SAG, I have the Talent trying to race ahead and angle in for an attack with her garbage tigerfish (as mentioned, shouldn't I have a few spearfish?) which probably won't go well. The Chicago is also moving to position but is 200nm out.

As always Gunner, great scenario. Almost seems to have a mind of its own and while challenging it is one of the best I have played so far.

Score: 579 Triumph

Butchers bill:

SIDE: NATO
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
2x F/A-18A Hornet
4x F-15C Eagle
1x F-14D Tomcat
3x F-14A Tomcat
1x Falcon 20F-ECM
1x CP-140 Aurora [Orion]
2x F/A-18C Hornet


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
118x AN/SSQ-53B DIFAR
73x AN/SSQ-62B DICASS
58x CA/SSQ-523 CASS [AN/SSQ-50]
11x AN/SSQ-77A VLAD
80x SSQ-963A CAMBS III
108x RGM-109C Tomahawk Blk II TLAM
143x DSTV 7A LOFAR [TSM 8030]
45x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
32x AIM-7M Sparrow III
93x AIM-120A AMRAAM
29x Generic Flare Salvo [3x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
54x CA/SSQ-550 DIFAR [AN/SSQ-53A]
154x DSTV 4M LOFAR [TSM 8010]
44x AIM-54C Phoenix
200x SSQ-947 Julie Active Range-Only [AN/SSQ-47]
55x AIM-7P Sparrow III
33x AIM-9M Sidewinder
32x AGM-84D Harpoon IC
2x Mk50 Barracuda Mod 0 ALWT
19x Mk46 NEARTIP Mod 5
5x DSTA 3 DICASS [TSM 8040]
4x UGM-84B Harpoon IA
2x Mk48 Mod 5 ADCAP
57x RIM-66M-1 SM-2MR Blk III
39x RIM-67C SM-2ER Blk II
59x RIM-66H SM-2MR Blk II
9x RIM-66E6 SM-1MR Blk VIB
2x RIM-7P Sea Sparrow
7x RIM-7M Sea Sparrow
1x 76mm/62 Compact HE Burst [4 rnds]
5x RIM-66E SM-1MR Blk VI
8x UGM-84D Harpoon IC



SIDE: Warsaw Pact
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
6x MiG-29 Fulcrum C
2x Tu-16Ye Badger K
1x Tu-16P Badger J
2x Tu-16P Badger L
11x Su-33 Flanker D
13x MiG-31B Foxhound
8x Su-27S Flanker B
4x Su-24MP Fencer F
1x Ka-29RLD Helix
2x Ka-27PL Helix A
1x Be-12PL Mail
2x Su-27S Flanker B
4x Ka-27PL Helix A
1x Ka-25Ts Hormone B
1x RKR Kirov [Pr.1144 Orlan]
1x PLA-671RTM Victor III [Shchuka]
2x PLA-671RT Victor II [Syomga]
1x Tu-16RM-1/2 Badger D
1x PL-877M Kilo
2x PLA-671RTMK Victor III [Shchuka]
40x Su-24M Fencer D
1x BPK Udaloy II [Pr.1155.1]
1x PLARK-949A Oscar II [Antey]
1x PLA-945A Sierra II [Kondor]


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
213x RGB-75 [Basic Search, Passive Omni]
53x RGB-NM-1 [Passive Omni]
82x AA-10 Alamo C [R-27RE, LR SARH]
175x AA-10 Alamo A [R-27R, MR SARH]
16x AA-9 Amos [R-33, SARH]
154x SA-N-6a Grumble [5R55RM]
89x SA-20a Gargoyle [48N6]
88x SA-10b Grumble [5V55R]
31x SA-12a Gladiator [9M83]
17x AA-11 Archer [R-73]
19x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
93x Generic Chaff Salvo [4x Cartridges]
16x AA-8 Aphid [R-60TM]
14x Generic Flare Salvo [2x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
3x Generic Flare Salvo [4x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
18x SA-N-11a Grisom [9M311K]
38x AK-130 130mm/54 Twin Frag Burst [2 rnds]
56x PK-10 Chaff [SR-50]
15x PK-2 Chaff [TSP-47]
21x SA-N-9 Gauntlet [9M330-2 Kinzhal]
28x SA-N-4b Gecko [9M33M3]
32x AK-630M 30mm/65 Gatling Burst [400 rnds]
40x Generic Acoustic Decoy
1x SA-N-8 Gremlin [9M36]
2x Generic Flare Salvo [3x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
16x AK-100 100mm/70 Frag
16x SS-N-12 Sandbox Mod 1 [P-500 Bazalt]
10x AS-4 Kitchen A Mod 3 [Kh-22N ASM]
4x Generic Chaff Salvo [8x Cartridges]
12x SS-N-19 Shipwreck [P-700 Granit]
4x AS-17 Krypton C [Kh-31P, ARM]
4x 30mm Twin Gatling Gsh-6-30K Burst [375 rnds]
14x AS-12 Kegler [Kh-25MP, ARM]

[RobotCriminal]

Wow I might be wrong on the spearfish actually, development did start in the early 80s and manufacturing in the late 80s according to various internet sources but I'm not really sure when it actually entered widespread service (the CMANO database has it in 96). Would probably need someone with better RN knowledge to know for sure, idk.

e: And in case anyone was wondering my plan semi-backfired, the San Juan played "dodge the rocket torp" until she lost, but took the Udaloy with her and scored an ADCAP on the other Kirov which somehow is currently still floating (for now).

[Gunner98]

Wow, excellent write-up. You are playing a wise and cagy game [&o]. I suspect that it was that remaining Satellite that Magi was concerned about that gained the targeting information. However, now that your radars are on....

Had a discussion on the Spearfish earlier on, I think it was in Bardufoss Blues. My compromise was to add a 1/2 dozen Spears to the quiver. I think we ran down the number of some 100 or so being produced and fielded by 94, considering that no peace dividend would be entertained in this battle set, I could work the same solution here.

Enjoy your fun in the Sandbox ;-0

[magi]

im only an hour or so into this version.... there was an 4 unit red flight heading south to hit my ALOC at hi speed.... at approximately 360nm south of keflavik they turned to head home... i suspect this was not intended... although it would be a good feint.....

[Gunner98]

Magi
It was intended but not the turn-back. They are supposed to force the issue of protecting the ALOC and hopefully distract a few resources away from the Big E. I need to look at that. This one has been in the cooker for such a long time that some things change with the various DB updates.

Thanks for picking that up.

B

[RobotCriminal]

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

Wow, excellent write-up. You are playing a wise and cagy game [&o]. I suspect that it was that remaining Satellite that Magi was concerned about that gained the targeting information. However, now that your radars are on....

Had a discussion on the Spearfish earlier on, I think it was in Bardufoss Blues. My compromise was to add a 1/2 dozen Spears to the quiver. I think we ran down the number of some 100 or so being produced and fielded by 94, considering that no peace dividend would be entertained in this battle set, I could work the same solution here.

Enjoy your fun in the Sandbox ;-0

Interesting about the spearfish, to save you the trouble, the 96 version of the Trafalgar already has a half dozen loaded (edit:and also seemingly a different sonar suite, hmm):

http://wiki.baloogancampaign.com/index. ... rine?ID=38

And I shut the shipboard radars back off and reversed course for the south as soon as I thought I could do so without dying [;)]. Hopefully the Oscar that was supposed to kill me is the one I killed first earlier.

[Gunner98]

Ahh, you already got him did you? Well you may also have the Kitchen sink coming your way [;)] and there may be a Shipwreck or two to avoid out there as well.[:D] Curious about the Trafalgar class.

[RobotCriminal]

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

Ahh, you already got him did you? Well you may also have the Kitchen sink coming your way [;)] and there may be a Shipwreck or two to avoid out there as well.[:D] Curious about the Trafalgar class.

Well I imagine that if I can avoid getting a sunburn I will be ok, some days can be a real sizzler this time of year [:'(]

[magi]

some problems were developing with the paths to le havre... zulu 0900 aprox.... 24th inf div convoy was goin to go into a back and forth path in a 200nm aprox.... and convoy 94/01 started heading to the ivory coast then back nort to the sloc line.....

[RobotCriminal]

Might also want to give the airbases modeling the east coast and European airports more runways, right now I have a bottleneck of about 50 airliners trying to land at each end and not many over the atlantic. Sorry that this is a bit of a nit-pick.

[Gunner98]

Sorry that this is a bit of a nit-pick.

Hay - no problem, that's what testing is about.

I have a couple days and will try and fix this one for release, and NF6 & NF7 for a another round of testing

Thanks to all.