Diary of a Rookie Part 2: Battle of Latakia

[MrMan95]

Well, I had planned on doing this scenario in an AAR (at Schr75's recommendation) about six months ago. But I ended up puting CMANO down for a while as I was distracted by other activities! Anyway, here goes!

This is probably the simplest scenario I've played so far in CMANO, not a bad thing at all for a rookie like me getting back into the game after a six month Hiatus, the centerpiece is a duel between the missile armed Sa'ar-class boats against the Komar and Osa boats of the Syrian Navy. The Syrians have the advantage of range, while the Israeli forces have the advantage of being better able to reliably hit their target with the Gabriel Missile.

The Scenario begins at 21:00 Zulu time on October 6th, 1973. The first day of the Yom Kippur war. When the game begins the Israeli's have no contacts detected and both strike groups, (SG1 and SG2) are heading towards the Syrian port of Latakia. For now I keep them on their current course, it's exactly an hour before they make their first contact.

The contact is identified as a Pr.183 Torpedo boat, it's initially identified by it's own radar emissions. I have to admit, this surprised me, when Torpedo boats were mentioned I assumed something similar to second world war PT boats, I didn't think they'd have radar. Still, the boat doesn't pose a threat, so I close to nine and a half nautical miles before letting off a pair of Gabriel Missiles from the Sa'ar 4-class boat in SG1. While the missile is en-route I pick up a second Pr.183 boat, this one about 12nm out. Given my lack of experience with the Gabriel I decide to see what effect the pair launched currently have on their target.

A few seconds after picking up that second contact the leading missile hits its target. Launching a pair from 9.5nm may have been excessive, time to test the waters. At about 11.5nm out a single Gabriel missile is sent to take care of the second Pr.183. After a short flight the missile hits, easily. These missiles really do feel reliable.

So far I've expended three missiles and scored kills on two Syrian Navy torpedo boats. For now though, I'll have to cut things short, stay tuned for the next installment where I'll nearly get my boats sunk in a reckless maneuver that directly goes against what the Israelis did historically!

[Primarchx]

It's amazing how well chaff spoofs those SS-N-2s, eh?

[MrMan95]

Indeed it is! I'm pretty sure if it wasn't for that this short scenario would have been quite a disaster!

[MrMan95]

Okay, to be honest here folks this was maybe not the best scenario to write an AAR about. I think I'm going to leave this here as it strains my abilities to write, the scenario was fun to play and is an excellent learning tool, but perhaps a little simple for writing.