Korean Missile Crisis: Why the Russians shouldn't have gotten involved

[Eboreg]

So... I decided to play the Korean Missile Crisis LIVE scenario from both the American and Russian perspectives. The American perspective was actually rather fun especially with the rockets' red glare, the Tomahawks bursting in air. (Actually on top of the entire Nork air defense network but... minor details) The Russian side, on the other hand, hoo boy was that rather difficult. And luck based. And completely f***ing frustrating. I had to get 1,000 points to win but there were only 1,125 points in play. Not to mention that any fighter craft lost would have led to a loss of 25 points so can't let that happen!

I have to rely almost entirely on the Americans to take out the SAM network and since they're AI, they can't be trusted with the simple stuff. There were also two hardened bunkers that I needed to take out and although I did have enough TV-Guided Penetrator Bombs to take out one of them, I didn't have enough daylight to use them. I ended up having to spam conventional laser- and GLONASS-guided bombs on both hardened targets to take them out but the soft targets did fall pretty quickly to dumb bombs.

Meanwhile, I had taken out the Sinpo by assigning all of my MPAs and available ASW choppers to an ASW Patrol over the marked area and turning off the 1/3 rule. I had to micromanage just a bit to be able to keep an eye on any GOBLIN contacts until they were identified and interestingly, the Sinpo had been ID'd as an SSB for a while before it was ID'd as the Sinpo. I would have sunk it during that time if there weren't 200 points available for positively ID'ing it. I also found it rather odd that the Russians committed an Oscar SSGN to the fight, wrong tool for the job don't you think?

Not only that but the Americans had their doctrines configured to allow using air-to-air guns and AIM-120C-7 AMRAAMS against guided weapons, which I had to change to prevent them from accidentally starting WWIII. However, the worst part was that this was a night mission and the Russians just didn't have any recon aircraft to see enemy ground units at night. The ground-search radar was absolute trash and they didn't have any IR cameras whatsoever. I had to rely on the Americans to find the nuclear missile launcher which would have worked if they didn't fly their U-2 at low level over the launcher causing it to eat a MANPADS. Except it got worse, the launcher they found turned out to be a dummy. The Americans had already taken some pretty heavy aircraft losses by this point and I had to just stop when they lost a Raptor.

Overall, great scenario from the American point of view, not so great from the Russian point of view, and one of the scenarios I would absolutely love to try in multiplayer when it does come out. It would especially be interesting to try to dick over your opponent by deliberately leaving SAM sites up over one of their targets.

[Gunner98]

Glad you enjoyed the scenario.

From the Russian side, when I started digging into it I found that they absolutely did not have the right tools for the job. So it became a series of compromises.

-Relying on the Americans to do the SEAD/DEAD was just a great piece of irony. I couldn't help myself.
-Penetrators, or lack of options: you can do it with what you have but it means going early and assuming a lot of risk
-Using an Oscar - wrong tool, certainly, but it has a good sonar and was available. It's really for the Americans to stumble across and have a bit of concern for.
-Lack of tactical recce is a real issue which I could not find a system to solve.

I do like your idea for multi-player. Ideal for this scenario.

B

[Randomizer]

I have only ever played this as the Russians, the idea of Vlad the Imperator corersing weaker neighbours into a particular coarse of action has a small ring of truth while not having the correct tools for the mission represents a very real operational problem to solve. Having Russia as a playable side was an awesome scenario design choice, in my opinion.

-C

[Eboreg]

So... after trying to mod this scenario to get the American U-2 to stop acting suicidal and failing, I went over it one more time and found that the Russians actually do have a reconnaissance aircraft that can find the nuclear missile launcher, it's just not labeled as a recon plane. It's the Tu-214R that is heavily implied to be meant for ELINT. So... yeah... now I got a chance as the Russians!

[RIPperSVK]

Just finished playing the scenario as Russians (Average, 375). My observations:
- destroying the west-most targets (Yongbyon) was easy with cruise missiles (Kalibr) from the ships. I attacked right at the start of the scenario when North Korea wasn't ready yet, and I had the missiles fly north of their china border - over china territory. Maybe a bit naughty against the chinese, but I'm sure Putin would aprove. The missiles hit the targets and destroyed them without much trouble
- then I wanted to destroy the closest target (Chungjinsi). First idea was using low-flying Su-24s with LGBs. I thought I'll attack from north over the mountains and destroy the targets before they know what hit them. The trouble is when I realized that the bombs needs at least 2000 ft AGL height for release - so I wasn't hidden as well. Also there were a lot of MANPADS in the area. I couldn'e go low because of MANPADS, couldn't go high because of SAM. So I had to reload this effort. In the end I destroyed the target with a salvo of Kh-22s from Tu-22s. Lesson here - do not attack targets that are not cleared from defenses with LGBs, you'll not run away.
- I didn't kill the Singpo, US found it first. Lesson here - one important thing to notice was that ASW patrol missions are too trigger happy by default - they attack any underwater target before confirming it. That's not good in this case as there are US subs in the area. I feel that finding the sub first is quite luck based.
- US didn't find the No Dong launchers, and I waited too long to try - they launched, one was intercepted by SM-3 and one hit its target (south part of Japan). So strategically we failed. Then I still wanted to hunt the launchers, so I've sent a big AAW patrol in the area to push away NK figthers, and tried to find the launchers with recon Su-24. I thought the NK-06 is long dead, but it wasn't - it surprised me and cost me 2 Su-27s. I had ARM armed Su-24 standing by that killed it in response, but it was still not worth it. Lesson here - be ready for more danger, do not underestimate the defenses. Luckilly I kind of followed this with prepared ARM armed Su-24s.

[Gunner98]

Yes finding the Singpo before the US involves a bit of luck. There are random start locations so it will change from game to game. The US also has the advantage of the Japanese reporting contacts to them and they have some good ASW resources.

Playing the Russians is a challenge.

[Eboreg]

Well... I just got all of the targets as the Russians, and I mean all of them, and the game still won't let me win. Apparently, when I said that there were only 1,125 points in play, I was kind of wrong. There were only 925. And you need 1,000 points to win. Joy.

[Eboreg]

Remember when I said that there were only 925 points in play? Turns out I was low by 100. The scenario gives 25 points for each dummy launcher you detect and classify and there are 4 of them. So you need to not only take out all targets including the Sinpo and the Nodong but also find all dummy launchers and not lose any aircraft or get any civilian ships sunk to get 1,025 points. Except... well... there's a catch. The trigger that goes off at 1,000 points only does so if the Nodong is destroyed and the Sinpo is sunk and if you manage to go over 1,000 by taking out either one, the trigger won't go off and you won't be able to win. Which means you have to be careful and leave 2 dummy launchers to "discover" after both the real launcher is destroyed and the Sinpo is sunk. Overall, very tough scenario as the Russians and you really need to know what you're doing but rather fun nonetheless.

[Gunner98]

if the Nodong is destroyed and the Sinpo is sunk

That is correct - and in reality the only things that matter if you're in Japan or Seoul under nuclear threat.

Glad you're enjoying it.

B