New guy with some frustrations

[Arekay]

Moved here because someone pointed out that I started it in the wrong place.

Hi all...I am relatively new to CMANO but have been playing military sims for years...my first version of Harpoon came on 3.5 inch floppies and I read Red Storm Rising in hard copy if that gives you any perspective.

I am working my way up the learning curve so forgive me if I am making foolish observations but there are some things that I have stumbled across that seem a little silly. I will start with the episode that compelled me to join and write and list a few other issues. Hopefully, you can help me understand why things work the way they do.

Playing Iron Hand with a Flanker CAP (4 aircraft) just at the edge of Azerbaijani SAM range while beginning attacks on SAM sites. Ran a low level Fullback/Krypton attack paired with cruise missiles at the Baku peninsula successfully damaging the Gargoyle and Gammon sites. While this attack was underway, 6 Azerbaijani MIGs launched from the Baku area to help defend against the cruise missile attack. They initially trailed the Fullbacks who had a good head start on them into my Flanker prosecution zone where a missile exchange ensued. When the Flanker long range missiles were exhausted, 4 enemy MIGs were down to one friendly Flanker...this is where it got strange. The remaining two enemy MIGs chased the Flankers more than 200 miles into Russian airspace shooting them down one at a time with guns while the Flankers failed to engage even though they outnumbered them and still carried short range missiles. The replacement CAP, which I had launched once it became clear that I was running out of missiles in the main fight, ignored the enemy fighters and every effort on my part to redirect them right up to the point that the enemy MIG drove into gun range and shot one of them down. (I ultimately figured out that they were single-mindedly heading for a tanker even though they had just taken off...I know I could have prevented this by making a doctrine change but it seems a little ridiculous that the default is refuel even at the risk of ignoring an enemy attacking your friends and ultimately you) This all completely ignores the fact that Russia would have a gazillion SAMs guarding that border and no single Azeri fighter would last a minute.

When fighting with the Russian aircraft, over and over again, the planes would fire a missile that requires radar direction and then turn away from the target wasting the missile. No pilot would do this unless there was an imminent need to take evasive action.

During the low level Krypton attack on the Gargoyles (which are a mobile launcher and subject to some uncertainty of location) the target position briefly flickered out into the Caspian Sea prompting the strike planes to launch two missiles while still 40 miles short of target range. I understand the risks that come with position uncertainty but again no pilot would fire missiles at a target that couldnt possibly be where the sensors briefly indicated it to be. This makes it a bad idea to ever run dedicated strikes against uncertain targets...and forces you to attack from patrols which requires way more hands on management. One more thought from the Fullback attack...during the run in the planes insisted on climbing back to altitude even though I had directed them to fly at sea level. I dont know what I was doing wrong there.

This is a short starter list of things that dont make sense...I will add to this post as I find other inconsistencies and hopefully your responses will help me understand what is going on.

Thanks!

[Rory Noonan]

ORIGINAL: Arekay

Moved here because someone pointed out that I started it in the wrong place.

Hi all...I am relatively new to CMANO but have been playing military sims for years...my first version of Harpoon came on 3.5 inch floppies and I read Red Storm Rising in hard copy if that gives you any perspective.

First, thanks for making me feel old. I share these experiences with you, although only(?) turned 31 last week. If you loved Harpoon, RSR and the like as much as I did, you'll be very happy with CMANO for a long time to come.

ORIGINAL: Arekay
I am working my way up the learning curve so forgive me if I am making foolish observations but there are some things that I have stumbled across that seem a little silly. I will start with the episode that compelled me to join and write and list a few other issues. Hopefully, you can help me understand why things work the way they do.

Playing Iron Hand with a Flanker CAP (4 aircraft) just at the edge of Azerbaijani SAM range while beginning attacks on SAM sites. Ran a low level Fullback/Krypton attack paired with cruise missiles at the Baku peninsula successfully damaging the Gargoyle and Gammon sites. While this attack was underway, 6 Azerbaijani MIGs launched from the Baku area to help defend against the cruise missile attack. They initially trailed the Fullbacks who had a good head start on them into my Flanker prosecution zone where a missile exchange ensued. When the Flanker long range missiles were exhausted, 4 enemy MIGs were down to one friendly Flanker...this is where it got strange. The remaining two enemy MIGs chased the Flankers more than 200 miles into Russian airspace shooting them down one at a time with guns while the Flankers failed to engage even though they outnumbered them and still carried short range missiles. The replacement CAP, which I had launched once it became clear that I was running out of missiles in the main fight, ignored the enemy fighters and every effort on my part to redirect them right up to the point that the enemy MIG drove into gun range and shot one of them down. (I ultimately figured out that they were single-mindedly heading for a tanker even though they had just taken off...I know I could have prevented this by making a doctrine change but it seems a little ridiculous that the default is refuel even at the risk of ignoring an enemy attacking your friends and ultimately you) This all completely ignores the fact that Russia would have a gazillion SAMs guarding that border and no single Azeri fighter would last a minute.

When fighting with the Russian aircraft, over and over again, the planes would fire a missile that requires radar direction and then turn away from the target wasting the missile. No pilot would do this unless there was an imminent need to take evasive action.

During the low level Krypton attack on the Gargoyles (which are a mobile launcher and subject to some uncertainty of location) the target position briefly flickered out into the Caspian Sea prompting the strike planes to launch two missiles while still 40 miles short of target range. I understand the risks that come with position uncertainty but again no pilot would fire missiles at a target that couldnt possibly be where the sensors briefly indicated it to be. This makes it a bad idea to ever run dedicated strikes against uncertain targets...and forces you to attack from patrols which requires way more hands on management. One more thought from the Fullback attack...during the run in the planes insisted on climbing back to altitude even though I had directed them to fly at sea level. I dont know what I was doing wrong there.

This is a short starter list of things that dont make sense...I will add to this post as I find other inconsistencies and hopefully your responses will help me understand what is going on.

Thanks!

I've had some similar problems in the past. Most of them turned out to be forgetting to change a setting, or being ignorant of the setting existing in the first place. CMANO is very complex, there is a wealth of things going on 'under the hood' that aren't immediately obvious to the player--particularly new players.

If you could post a save showing some of the behaviour you describe it would really help us figure out what's going wrong. Your description is quite good, but there are many, many variables to consider. A savegame speaks 1,000 words.

In the mean-time, have you tried the tutorial scenarios? Also, Baloogan and Kushan both have a slew of YouTube videos of CMANO gameplay. You might pick up something useful there.