New Scenario: Dire Straits, 1990

[HalfLifeExpert]

Last night I finished re-reading Red Phoenix by Larry Bond, and I decided to build a scenario recreating the events of Chapter 38 'Dire Straits' featuring an ASW Convoy battle in the Tsushima strait.

Let me know what you think. I've attempted to keep things simple with a simple win or lose condition for victory: Ether get the convoy through or lose.

UPDATE:

5th version uploaded with some important corrections.

[Primarchx]

FYI - RPs for the Pusan victory zone not in the trigger.

[Tom Konczal]

Played your scenario this morning. If I may be blunt, very interesting but very boring for the following reasons:

#1 Helos were not loaded at the start of the scenario. Took 4 hours to load and launch. Was this intentional?

#2 OSA's never moved. They were found by the P-3 and 2 Harpoons took out the first two and on the next P-3 scan, I noticed the 3rd and last Osa was still sitting there at speed 0. They never moved. Third Harpoon sunk him.

#3 No subs ever attacked. I moved at speed 7 to avoid any cavitation. I checked afterward with the editor and believe the 2 eastern subs are way to far to the east and the single west sub has too much area far away from the straight path to Pusan that I took.

#4 The scenario went on to the end and didn't end when I had safely brought all of the ships into the Pusan designated area.

#5 There was no score at the end of the scenario even though every ship entered the harbor designated area.

Hope that helps.
Tom Konczal

[HalfLifeExpert]

Thanks for your feedback

ORIGINAL: Tom Konczal

Played your scenario this morning. If I may be blunt, very interesting but very boring for the following reasons:

#1 Helos were not loaded at the start of the scenario. Took 4 hours to load and launch. Was this intentional?

#2 OSA's never moved. They were found by the P-3 and 2 Harpoons took out the first two and on the next P-3 scan, I noticed the 3rd and last Osa was still sitting there at speed 0. They never moved. Third Harpoon sunk him.

I actually already corrected those with a second version I posted not long after the first. The Osas are now assigned to their mission. I armed One helo on each escort, with another readying.

#3 No subs ever attacked. I moved at speed 7 to avoid any cavitation. I checked afterward with the editor and believe the 2 eastern subs are way to far to the east and the single west sub has too much area far away from the straight path to Pusan that I took.

Hmm, perhaps I made their mission areas too big, I'll narrow them in the next version shortly.

#4 The scenario went on to the end and didn't end when I had safely brought all of the ships into the Pusan designated area.

Yeah I'll look into that straight away. Hopefully it will be fixed in version 3.

#5 There was no score at the end of the scenario even though every ship entered the harbor designated area.

I intended to set it up where you get 100 pts (and thus a triumph) by getting the ships to the safe zone, the above should hopefully fix that too.


Thanks again, I hope to have version 3 up pretty soon.

[HalfLifeExpert]

Okay, I've made a couple corrections as needed based on feedback, and version 3 is ready in the OP.

[HalfLifeExpert]

I've discovered another issue with the enemy submarines' missions, so I've uploaded a 4th version to the OP, I also disabled the surface radar for Sierra Five, as they had it off by default in the book and it can add an extra challenge.

[Tom Konczal]

Finished it the second time.
Even with the P-3's radar off, it still spotted the OSA's and the destroyer took all 3 out with 3 harpoons.
Only ran into the western sub and nailed it with ease. Once again, I checked the end with the editor and found the other two subs way too far east from the direct approach path for my task force.

I suggest you put all three across that path.

Here is the end

Hope that helps
Tom

[HalfLifeExpert]

Sorry for the delay in replying


I placed the subs as described in the novel, with two Romeos east of Tsushima Island, and the Kilo to the west.

Do you know of any way I can make the subs more aggressive? I should have set them to ignore subsurface contacts.

I also added SA-7 MANPADS to the Osas as described in the novel.

[Tom Konczal]

Again have all three subs area cover the width of the area. It may not be the correct storyline, but it will make the game more interesting.

[HalfLifeExpert]

I've combined all 3 NK subs into one patrol zone that covers the whole area around Tsushima island, added to OP

[schweggy]

I started this scenario a couple hours ago. The P-3 found the 3 Osa I missile boats but did not know what to do with them even though it apparently was armed with Harpoon anti-ship missiles. It eventually met its fate over the cold waters of the Tsushima Strait. I detached the Duncan from the main formation to act as a scout and deal with the Osa's. During it's run up to the area those missile boats were operating I launched the long range equipped SH-2F (Seagull 2) to act as a radar picket to find them, relay that to the Duncan so it could fire 3 Harpoons (1 each) at the Osa's. With those out of the way the Duncan and her Seasprites began searching the area between the Korean mainland and Tsushima Island. After a couple hours a goblin appeared near the west coast of the island, heading north-north east at 3kts. One of the O'Brian's Seasprites pounced on it, but the torp was a dud. The 2nd helo up had expended it's only torpedo on a false contact, but was able to corral the sub with AN/SSQ-62B DICASS. That enabled the O'Brian to close to ASROC range and finish it off. At that point I broke up the convoy and sent the merchants at flank speed to Pusan while the O'Brian and Duncan searched for other subs, but found none.

Cool scenario. Not very difficult, but I get the plot line.

Score: 100

SIDE: Convoy HP-07
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LOSSES:
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EXPENDITURES:
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41x AN/SSQ-62B DICASS
3x RGM-84D Harpoon IC
3x Mk46 NEARTIP Mod 5
1x RUR-5A Mod 4 ASROC RTT [Mk46 Mod 5]



SIDE: Sierra Five
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LOSSES:
-------------------------------
1x P-3C Orion Update II.5


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
1x AN/SSQ-77A VLAD
9x AN/SSQ-62B DICASS
7x AN/SSQ-53B DIFAR



SIDE: Korean People's Navy
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
3x RK Osa I [Pr.205]
1x PL-877 Kilo


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
29x AK-230 30mm/65 Twin Burst [50 rnds]
5x SA-7b Grail [9M32M]
8x Generic Acoustic Decoy



SIDE: Nature
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
2x False Contact (Medium)


EXPENDITURES:
------------------



SIDE: Pusan
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------


EXPENDITURES:
------------------