Chaudron - La Chasse de Sous-marine, 2018 [Updated to Beta 4 10/27/15]

[ultradave]

Four subs, I operated them in pairs, creeping mostly, one above the layer, one below. When a sonobuoy dropped, go deep, turn and run on full, then stop on the bottom. (they were all active bouys) That worked twice, and didn't work twice. The third sub had a torpedo dropped right on top of it while running at 400 ft and was a goner before I even knew what happened.

[wild_Willie2]

Ok, just finished my first play trough of this interesting scenario.

My random setup was pretty easy as both sides got fighters but the French ASW planes dropped like flies. I got six Virginia's and two Astute boats and had no problems picking up and destroying the French subs as they tended to move at relative high speeds (16 knots) and at great depths so I could detect and engage them before they could detect my subs (cruising in the thermocline at 12 knots).

This setup was way to easy, but I'll try again to see if that makes a difference.

W.

[ultradave]

Ok, round 3. This time I've been given 8 subs (2 688s, 2 VIRGINIA, 2 Astute, 2 Trafalgar). Let's see what I can do with that.

Edit later for results.... Better results this time. Maybe the luck of the draw. I was able to sink 2 SSBNs and 4 SSN's for the loss of 3 US/UK subs. Two succumbed to arial torpedoes. Virginia had managed to evade about 10 but was finally sunk. The third sub was a mutual destruction with a French SSN - both fired two torpedoes at the same time. Both were sunk. Deadly.

Stayed inside and low in the layer. This way I managed to get the drop on a couple of the French subs. Of course, once I fired they were out looking for me and then the real fun started

[AlexGGGG]

With Beta 3, I'm occasionally getting message boxes pop up like

---------------------------
Command
---------------------------
Couldn't find the unit Atlantique #2
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------


This is probably side effect of lua tasking the unit which is already killed by CAP aircraft. And this happens at the same time event "Date - Mission Assignments" happens.

Other than that, no problem

[AlexGGGG]

Ahaaha I suddenly figured I have 100+ TLAMs. Things are now going bad in the house of French.

[wild_Willie2]

I deliberately never used the onboard TLAM's to attack the French airfields. These do not have SAM defenses and are most likely not meant to be attacked, besides this, knocking out French AF's would make this scenario even easier then it already is.

[AlexGGGG]

I found out this changes the scenario, from sub-vs-sub-with-complications to pure sub-vs-sub. Both cases may still be difficult depending on how the dice rolls. And no, I do not find the scenario easy in all cases - there are dice rolls when you have to drive your subs at flank speed just to get the entire area covered in a given time.

Sub-vs-sub is very different if enemy has ASW aircraft or not. If they have aircraft, you cannot use active sonar, and cannot use your subs as any kind of bait (e.g. by cavitating), because it draws aircraft to you and you can't outrun the aircraft. If there is no aircraft, the tactics can be more diverse.

[wild_Willie2]

Hmm, I never use active sonar and I never captivate my subs. I just let them cruise at 12 knots inside the thermocline and the French subs pop up in no time to be killed by kinematic shots set to approach them from above the thermocline..

You can cheat by firing a torpedo in BOL mode and every enemy sub that hears it will automatically dive deep and go to flank speed and can easily be picked up this way, but I try to not use this exploit.

The secret of this scenario is to NEVER go fast and to mostly stay inside the thermocline ..

[AlexGGGG]

You know Command allows for different strategies

If I have a wolf pack, say, sweeping north-to-south, I will have a center sub with active sonar ON, and two subs east and west of it creeping silently, the entire trio moving south. Enemy patrols come toward the center sub, where I can shoot them.

[Kushan04]

ORIGINAL: AlexGGGG

With Beta 3, I'm occasionally getting message boxes pop up like

---------------------------
Command
---------------------------
Couldn't find the unit Atlantique #2
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

This is probably side effect of lua tasking the unit which is already killed by CAP aircraft. And this happens at the same time event "Date - Mission Assignments" happens.

Other than that, no problem

Yea, that's what it is. I asked Ckfinite and he was able to generate a modified version of the code that should get rid of that. Going to implement it and test this weekend.

ORIGINAL: AlexGGGG

Ahaaha I suddenly figured I have 100+ TLAMs. Things are now going bad in the house of French.

Thanks for pointing this out. Fixed

ORIGINAL: wild_Willie2
You can cheat by firing a torpedo in BOL mode and every enemy sub that hears it will automatically dive deep and go to flank speed and can easily be picked up this way, but I try to not use this exploit.

This is actually a valid tactic. If I could find a way to script the AI to do it if it thought a player sub was nearby I would.

[AlexGGGG]

Firing torpedo in BOL mode is also great when I need to know if contact is biological or a sub, or exactly whose sub, and I need it real quick. Firing, or air-dropping a torpedo near the contact does the trick nicely. In case of a wire-guided torpedo, the torpedo can even be retargeted once I determine whose sub is it - this seems fairly easy when the sub is at flank speed in range of my passive sonar.

[Kushan04]

Sorry for the delay in getting the next version out. I'm doing a little reworking.

I've decided to move the player starting zone out into the Atlantic. This should make the start easier since you should be less likely having to run a picket line of sonobouys from the start. I'm also going to be tweaking the AI sides a bit. The AI surface/air and submarines assets will no longer be allied. ROE for the various missions will be adjusted to compensate. This might make the AI less eager to fire off a torpedo when a contact is first detected.

The bigger change I've been debating on is removing the 6-8 subs options for the player. I'd steal an idea from Northern Inferno and add a option for 2-4 subs under AI control that would not be visible to the player. This is mainly to make the player less likely to shoot at every contact it sight. Right now its not very difficult to pick out biologics from the real threats. To further muddy the picture an Ohio SSGN or two might be making an appearance as well.

[Kushan04]

Updated the download link in the first post to Beta 4.

Fixed air mission unassign to mission scripts. Should no longer receive an error when a detroyed unit is unassigned from a mission.
Updated spawn scripts for AI subs. Should spawn around entire patrol zone and no longer congregate in western portion.
French surface/Air and submarine force sides are no longer friendly. Sides will determine neutral/hostile status before engaging.
Removed 6-8 submarine options for player.
Added 2 or 4 AI controlled submarines. Submarines are not visible to the player.
Moved player start zone from Celtic Sea into the Atlantic ocean. Should be less likely to run into AI sonobouy picket line at scenario start.

[ojms]

Hi Kushan,

I got the error:

Can't find Atlantique #1

Cheers

[Kushan04]

Thanks ojms. Thought it was squashed as it didn't show up for me. If it happens again could you please post a screenshot of it?

[ultradave]

I got those too. Next time I run through it I'll get a shot. It only happened twice.

[AlexGGGG]

Sure

[Kushan04]

Sorry guys, I fixed the "unassign to mission" scripts but I forgot the "assign to mission" scripts. Updated the first post to beta 4.1 with the fixed scripts. Crossing my fingers this finally fixes the issue.

Beta 4.1 [10/27/2015]
Fixed air unit assign to mission scripts. Unit not found error should finally be solved.

[ultradave]

Played through the 4.1 beta. Everything works fine. No extra error messages.

Results. Sank 3 SSBNs, 4 SSNs, 5(?) FFGs. In return I lost 2 VIRGINIAs, 1 Trafalgar, and the AI lost 2 more Trafalgers. So pretty much an even up trade in casualties. So I guess success depends on how desperate we are to take out the French SSBNs.

If you want my opinion, I think you are ready to go. It's a challenge. Time is fine. If I hadn't been down to 1 sub for the last 13 hours of the game I probably could have located the 4th SSBN that I was told was out there.