This scenario will be the second installment of the WWIII 1987 series of scenarios based on the conflict modeling for the blog World War III 1987 (ww31987.wordpress.com) It has been a while since my last scenario but I expect to be quite active here in the coming weeks. Anyhow....
This scenario covers the first twelve hours of hostilities in the Eastern Mediterranean. The player takes the reins as NATO (Blue) commander and is tasked with clearing the region of all Red (Soviet) warships. But be vigilant because Red is hunting for your ships as well with his own powerful surface groups....and submarines....and land-based bombers.
This scenario is not complete, of course. A scoring system and other modifications have to be added. I will handle that, as well as incorporate player suggestions when I return from vacation in a week and a half.
In closing I'll leave a link to the WWIII 1987 blog covering the opening hours in the Med for reference.
Well - that was eventful! 1 hour and 8 minutes in and I called a halt. Made some mistakes but will fix that next time.
Observations:
-Air groups are 100%, no maintenance issues
-The French Georges Leygues Frigates should be carrying a couple Lynx each. These guys were supposed to be the French ASW equivalent to the Type 23 or OHP FFGs used for outer ASW defence
-Radars on Mount Olympus in Cyprus would be very helpful I think
-Akrotiri in the 80’s had a 4 pack of Phantoms usually with a tanker, and I believe there was a normally a Canberra PR.9 there (not always) keeping an eye on things Middle-Eastern. The US also kept a U-2 (or two) there for the same reason (note - never mind the 4 pack,,, more Phantoms please!)
-There would normally be 2 NATO AWACs at one of their FOBs (Konya Turkey, Aktion Greece or Trapani Italy)
Run through
-Started detecting the Sovs and they launched and ASuW strike at the Sara. I had good ID on 4 of the Minsk group but wanted better definition so a lurking P-3 launched its Harpoons and they got in. 2 Hits and 2 spoofs! Luck shot.
-Another large strike was coming in on the Clem but I didn’t know about it until I saw the missiles passing off to Port – Radars on! Holy crap. The Montcalm takes a hit but the rest are spoofed away although some are circling back – a narrow miss.
-Backfires coming in over Cyprus – scramble! (should have had CAP up and well forward) Mig-29s as escort – bugger that’s something I would do… The Migs distract most of the Phantoms but two get into the bomber stream and take out a backfire and damage another, but score is 3-3 for Migs & Phantoms with 1 more Phantom taken out by a tail gun!
-The Crusaders got into the bomber pack but too late. The Clemenceau group was at the bottom!
-Meanwhile the main strike into the Minsk group had chewed the heart out of the group and the Walley bangers were coming in next, as well as some Harpoon packing P-3s.
-The Slava group was OK, toothless and had defeated an Excoct attack, but they were being hunted by 3 SSNs.
OK – that was just over an hour in. I must say that was exciting and bloody
Losses
SIDE: Blue (the entire Clemenceau group except the stuff that was in the air)
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LOSSES:
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5x BR.1050 Alize ALM
1x D 602 Suffren
1x D 609 Aconit [Type F65]
2x D 640 Georges Leygues [Type F70]
4x Etendard IVP
1x F 781 D Estienne D Orves [A 69]
2x Lynx HAS.4(FN)
4x Phantom II FG.1
1x R 98 Clemenceau
1x SA.321G Super Frelon
1x Super Etendard
SIDE: Red
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LOSSES:
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1x BPK Kara Mod [Pr.1134B Berkut B]
1x BPK Udaloy I [Pr.1155 Fregat]
2x Ka-25Ts Hormone B
3x MiG-29 Fulcrum A
1x SKR Krivak II [Pr.1135M Burevestnik-M]
1x SSV Primorye [Pr.394B/994]
1x SSV Vishnya [Pr.864 Meridian]
4x Tu-22M-2 Backfire B
10x Yak-38 Forger A Plus the Minsk heavily damaged and a Kresta dead in the water
Sheesh! I'm going to add the radar on Mount Olympus, set up CAP the way I should have and give it another go...
Haha. Nobody calm on the Montcalm here either. Did better than I!
Eastern med was an absolute bust. Didn't manage to get my Etendards up and didn't have enough shots to do anything but eat some SAMS up. Hoping my other assets in that area fair much better!
Western much better. Nothing got through and my surface strike punched through. Oddly enough hero of the day was greek recce pilot who managed to get the IDs of the biggies pretty early to allocate weapons better. Paid for it, though!
Suggestions:
You can set the initial orientations of the units. (right-click unit, scenario editor at bottom and menu, set orientation). This gets rid of the initial turnaround.
Reduce readyness abit by setting some ac to maintenance of extended ready times.
My 2nd time around was a mess - the radar I put on Mount Olympus detected the storm of SSMs (which I didn't even see until they were passing by in the first go round) so the Clem and crew dutifully turned on their radars -- big mistake...
Simpler way of setting orientation:
1. group units,
2. set course
3. move group
They will all snap to the course of the first leg of the course. Or you can do it with Lua which addresses speed as well.
