Chains of War 5 - Nightmares 4/7/18

[fitzpatv]

Gave this a couple of tries today. The rationale is that North Korea followed-up the Chinese strikes by mounting a conventional and chemical warfare attack on the South, which prompted the US to retaliate by sending stealth bombers to hit their command and control infrastructure. You can only play the American side.

Targets are seven command bunkers (three of which are deeply buried in mountain sites and need penetrator warheads to damage), two government buildings in Pyongyang and the SSBN pens nearby. Most targets are near Pyongyang, but one of the mountain bunkers is near the Chinese border. These are defended by three batteries of modern KN-06 SAMs, numerous older SAMs (Gammon, 13 Guideline, 5 Goa), MANPADs, AA and potentially large numbers of fighters (Fulcrums, Floggers and MiGs 17 through 21).

To do the job, you have two B-1 Lancer bombers and three B-2 Spirits. The former each carry 24 AGM-158 cruise missiles, which can be launched safely from a distance, while the latter have GBU-28 and -57 penetrator weapons which have ranges of a couple of miles. To deliver these, you must rely heavily on the B-2's stealth abilities. You also have six F-22 Raptor fighters, with tanker support and a couple of U-2 planes for recon.

The U-2s are only really useful for providing ELINT, as their radar is outranged by the Gammon, which can hit them at altitude. I moved them in as near as I could and they provided me with enemy radar and SAM locations, for what it was worth.

In both playthroughs, I launched the 48 AGM-158s at the targets that did not require penetrator warheads. This is entirely a matter of luck - you can try to use terrain masking to improve the chances of missiles getting through, but there isn't much shelter on the final approach. The first time, I hit 600VP of targets, the second time 800, the latter being enough for an Average result. In a lot of ways, it might be best to leave it at that and not risk the B-2s.

Risking 600VP-worth of B-2s to maybe hit 600VP-worth of targets doesn't sound like good risk management, but this is what the game forces you to do if you want an outright win. You have the problem of approaching across the sea without any cover beyond flying at wavetop height. The first time, I sent all three bombers in by the same route and they were all spotted and shot down by MiG-21s with cannon, which was jaw-dropping! So much for stealth technology.

The second time, I sent each in by a different route to split the risk. To be honest, every way involves going past radars, Guideline sites and fighter airbases and there isn't much to choose. I was luckier on this occasion and got them all into North Korea and the vicinity of their respective targets. There is then the issue of having to pop-up to 3k' or 10k' (depending on weapon) to attack. The two Spirits sent to attack the targets nearer Pyongyang were both detected and downed by KN-06s during this manoeuvre (despite the enemy having already burned 46 of these SAMs against the AGM-158s). The third one successfully attacked the mountain bunker near the Chinese border, needing all of its 8 GBU-28s to do the job and in three passes at that. It scored 200VP, but was then shot down on the way out by fighters for an equal amount. So it ended on +400 and a Minor Defeat.

I've since read various suggestions on these forums, which seem to revolve around escorting the B-2s with the F-22s and using some of the Lancers' AGM-158s to take-out SAMs and radars. It seems that F-22s are much harder to detect than B-2s, but I had no way of knowing that in advance and had assumed that they would be Gammon fodder. There is also the issue of the fighters' endurance. Within this, they might be able to deal with the fighters that directly threaten the B-2s, however. As regards firing cruise missiles at SAMs and radars, I would be very reluctant given that you need every missile you have to take-out the targets.

To be perfectly honest, I am getting frustrated with the style of scenario featured in Chains of War. They all seem to be based on challenges that are barely possible with luck and a degree of foreknowledge. As such, they typically require several attempts to win and I simply don't enjoy playing this way, especially when there is so much other enticing content in the game.

I will, therefore, be concluding my Chains of War series here.

[BDukes]

Thanks for the AAR and sorry this frustrated you. I'll keep this in mind for the future.

Did you use the jamming capabilities of the B-1 and F-35?

Mike

[fitzpatv]

Have to say I missed that. I did give it a third try yesterday and this time managed to get it down to a Minor Defeat by hitting 8 targets for two B-2s lost. Both Spirits were lost to the KN-06s so, perhaps, some jamming might have helped. I had the F-22s over North Korea this time and, as advised elsewhere in these forums, they did indeed prove almost undetectable, by contrast to the B-2s. When is stealth tech not stealth tech?. Given the range advantage of the B-1s, I kept them well clear. Not sure how detectable they would be over North Korea, with or without jamming, but I'm not tempted to find out, even now.

So yeah, I'm not saying I won't ever play the series again, but I don't think I'm being sufficiently successful at it to be of much help as a reviewer, so I'll be keeping any future results to myself. Thanks for taking my comments in such tolerant fashion!.

[BDukes]

Have to say I missed that. I did give it a third try yesterday and this time managed to get it down to a Minor Defeat by hitting 8 targets for two B-2s lost. Both Spirits were lost to the KN-06s so, perhaps, some jamming might have helped. I had the F-22s over North Korea this time and, as advised elsewhere in these forums, they did indeed prove almost undetectable, by contrast to the B-2s. When is stealth tech not stealth tech?. Given the range advantage of the B-1s, I kept them well clear. Not sure how detectable they would be over North Korea, with or without jamming, but I'm not tempted to find out, even now.

So yeah, I'm not saying I won't ever play the series again, but I don't think I'm being sufficiently successful at it to be of much help as a reviewer, so I'll be keeping any future results to myself. Thanks for taking my comments in such tolerant fashion!.

No problem. You were fine. Nothing wrong with not knowing something or getting jammed up.

M

[tylerblakebrandon]

I will, therefore, be concluding my Chains of War series here.

COW is one of my favorite campaigns. I think later scenarios like Showpieces, Air Sea Battle, and Hail Mary may be more appealing to you.

[fitzpatv]

It does seem that a lot of people like it.

Today, I finally installed v.1307 aka 'Tiny' after a bit of a struggle with extracting data from Zip files and it seems to be working OK. As a benchmarked playtest, I ran Nightmares again and managed a Minor Victory this time.

Note that, in this version of the scenario, you get the DDGs Benfold and Kongo in support, though they don't do much.

My plan this time was to see if there was any chance of engaging the SAMs, use the B-1s' jamming abilities from a distance (the F-22s and B-2s don't have any) and avoid the two mountain bunkers near Pyongyang, concentrating on the one near the border instead.

It wasn't really possible to attack the SAMs, as the KN-06s stay dark until there are missiles incoming. There are four batteries of them in all and I really think that you would need so many missiles to take them out that you would have nothing left for the targets that actually score you VP.

Instead, I fired at the non-mountain targets as before and managed to destroy both government buildings, the SSBN pens, one large and two medium command bunkers for 800VP total. Luckier than usual. That left me needing the 200 for the bunker on the border to win, so long as I didn't lose anything.

The B-2 'Philly' succeeded in destroying said bunker, but it was a near-run thing, as a MiG-21 showed-up at the wrong moment and managed to damage the bomber before being downed by an F-22. The Raptors were then kept busy eliminating another 3 Fishbeds, 2 Fulcrums, 4 Floggers and a Fresco while constantly trying to go prematurely to a tanker to refuel (Doctrine orders notwithstanding) and being overruled by yours truly. Many of the fighter kills were made at what seemed like frighteningly close range, but the MiGs didn't seem to be able to get a fix on the Raptors.

The Gammon site did do so as the F-22 flight crossed the coast, but I got lucky and they missed with two shots at 30% or less. Got to happen sometime. All aircraft then made it home for the win.

[BDukes]

Nice job!

M