Chains of War 7 - Okinawa Bound 5/7/18

[fitzpatv]

China does not feel that Vietnam or Japan can be successfully occupied, but aims to seize Taiwan and Okinawa. The latter operation is played from the Chinese side. The USS Reagan has been sunk and the Okinawa airbases have been put out of action, but opposition can be expected from submarines, aircraft from Japan and South Korea and the local defences at the objective. Taiwan has not yet entered the conflict, but is patrolling its airspace on the right flank of the Chinese advance.

You are ordered to gain air superiority over Okinawa, neutralise numerous dispersal airfields elsewhere in the Ryukyus, then mount an amphibious invasion where the Americans came ashore in 1945 (near Kadena), backed-up by a paradrop where the US might have staged a second landing in WW2 (at the S tip of Okinawa). There are several US/Japanese army bases on the island, which are marked as targets – these should be hit in support of the landings.

To do this, the PLAN has a small convoy of two LPDs, two LSTs and two LSMs, with the LPDs carrying the great bulk of the troops (88%). This is protected by a screen of eight subs, a close escort of four DDGs, five FFGs and five FFLs and flanked by two squadrons, each consisting of an FFL and four Houbei stealth PCFGs. The subs are mostly Yuan and Song SSKs with anti-shipping missiles, but include a couple of useless Han SSNs, armed only with short-ranged torpedoes and hopelessly outclassed by their American counterparts. All of the ships start as individual units and it is up to you to group them as you see fit. The escorts have choppers, but few carry sonobuoys and the ASW situation does not inspire confidence. SAM protection is a bit more reassuring.

For the paradrop, you have ten ex-Soviet Candid transports near Wuhan. As with the naval landing, the composition of the assault force isn’t exactly realistic, consisting entirely of 7.62mm machine-gun sections!.

The PLAAF has a substantial assortment of aircraft to bring to the party. There are plenty of Flanker and Firebird fighters, armed with PL-15s (in somewhat short supply), Adders and PL-12s. You have adequate tanker and AEW support, though not all Chinese aircraft can refuel in-flight (Flanker J-11Bs and Flounders cannot). The game does not make it clear for the uninitiated, but Probe and Drogue refuelling amount to the same thing – just as well, as the PLAAF relies exclusively on it.

Four Cub ASW planes at Dalian in the N help to plug the gap in this respect, though they need to be brought down and re-based to do their job effectively. I put them at Ningbo and found that they could replace sonobuoys and re-use their loadouts from there if they hadn’t used any torpedoes.

You have 36 planes capable of naval strikes, but many of them lack the range to venture far from mainland China. Sixteen SEAD aircraft with YJ-91s and Kryptons have similar issues.

Conducting land strikes is key to the scenario, but you are poorly served in this respect. You have 18 short-ranged Flounders, six of which have decent KD-88 stand-off weapons and the rest a pile of rubbish. Otherwise, there are a few light-armed, slow-moving drones and eight Badgers, which are lumbered with iron bombs. Most of these planes require daylight and all have long turn-round times. Not encouraging!.

You have plenty of time to get the convoy to the island, but protecting it is another matter, while unloading from the LPDs depends on ferrying troops to shore in choppers and hovercraft. Needless to say, the paradrop can’t be contemplated until the enemy SAMs have been neutralised.

5/7/18 01:00Z (09:00L): I grouped the two Houbei flotillas and sent them both NE at 18 knots to screen that flank. The other ships headed for Okinawa at 14 knots, with the five FFLs screening ahead individually and the subs providing early warning as best they could at Creep.

Ground search radar was in short supply, but a recon Flounder had the endurance to reach Okinawa and find six batteries of Patriots, plus supporting HAWKs. It did what it could to fly in and out of range and provoke the defenders into wasting ammo, but could not make much genuine impression this way.

Two Japanese F-15s went after the Flounder and were countered by a J-11B, the result being the destruction of all three fighters. Neither side scores for planes downed. I found that the PL-15 could hit targets at about 70-80% at 60nm, while the Japanese AAM4B was similarly effective but petered out soon afterwards. Calibrated the PL-15 engagement range to 70nm and later found this was about optimal. They are lethal weapons (or were before v.1307.13).

02:00Z: A Flounder scout downed an unwise EP-3 patrol plane, with its PL-8 missiles having a 55% chance at 3nm.
A big Tomahawk strike (56 missiles) was then detected en route for the convoy. The missiles were only supposed to be effective against land targets, so they were maybe heading for an airbase and the convoy just happened to be in their path. I had enough PL-12-armed CAP available to down the lot, though some got close enough to use-up some naval SAMs as well. I had my fighters close to 5nm before using their PL-12s, which ensured a high percentage of hits.

While this was going on, two more F-15s snuck-up on the recon Flounder. I got it away in time and intercepted with a J-11B. Firing at 70nm, I destroyed both Eagles but, illustrating the pitfalls of combat, forgot to alter doctrine to follow the plotted course while attacking after I had fired. This meant that the Flanker didn’t turn and run when ordered. My correction came too late and I lost the plane. Goes to show why you can’t rely on Missions.

Meanwhile, the six KD-88 Flounders were striking the dispersal airfields on Ishigaki and Tarama in the SW Ryukyus, near Taiwan. They managed to time it perfectly to go Bingo and RTB just before firing!. Knowing that they could fly further without ordnance, I altered doctrine and told them not to RTB for lack of fuel. This did the trick and, with no defences at the targets, all three runways were disabled. However, I was given EIGHT 50VP awards instead of three – this had to be a bug! It would be over ten hours before the Flounders could sortie again.

03:00Z: Six Flounders with Kryptons were sent to soften-up the Okinawa SAMs. Again, they lacked the fuel to reach the target without having their RTB overruled. Two Japanese Eagles then timed it beautifully to disrupt the strike and I was forced to RTB the Flounders anyway. A J-11B moved to intercept, downed an F-15 and then outran the AAM4Bs. The second Eagle kept coming. Another Flanker moved in and fired two pairs of PL-15s, all of which were spoofed on 15% chances. This was not luck, but either a bug or deliberate AI bias somewhere in the hard code. As has been discussed elsewhere, this happens far too often and this was an extreme example. I don’t like doing this, but I’d taken a save before the second Flanker fired and I reloaded from it. Jaw-droppingly, exactly the same thing happened again!. Even on the second reload, it took three shots to kill the target on chances of 74% plus. As it scored no VP, the impact on the game was slight.

Two Badgers each then attacked Shimojima and Miyako airfields in the SW Ryukyus from 2,000’ with bombs. At 201DP each, 24 bombs on each runway should have been more than enough – but no!. Nothing was scored. The bombs are marked as effective against runways in the database.

At least the SEAD Flounders made it to a new base at Luqiao, nearest to Okinawa, with no loss of ordnance, so could be used again in ten hours.

04:00Z: Eight South Korean F-15s made a sweep towards the convoy and were intercepted by a J-11B and two Firebirds. Four Eagles were downed for one Firebird and the Koreans withdrew. With better luck, we’d have gotten another three. PL-12 effective range seems to be about 20nm, as the enemy could outrun them at 25. It was nice when the database just told you these things...

05:00Z: Six surface warships came into AEW view W of Kyushu. An early strike was not possible given the limited range of Chinese aircraft, so I bided my time and tried to set-up an ambush involving the Houbeis and subs.

A second quartet of Badgers bombed Shimojima and Miyako, with no more success than before. It would be 20 hours before I could use them again and I was now effectively out of land strike planes. Bricks without straw…

The only way to deal with the SAMs seemed to be naval gunnery so, mindful of the risk of lurking subs, I advanced the screen of five FFLs and gave them Cub ASW cover as near to Okinawa as I dared. The idea was to split the corvettes and have them come in from wide angles, with two sailing to the SE of the island.

06:00Z: The surviving four Korean Eagles re-appeared W of Kyushu. A J-11B engaged, but the enemy turned tail. Instead, a pair of American F-18s countered, but were outranged and destroyed by PL-15s.

07:00Z: Four Japanese Eagles made a deep sweep towards the convoy. A J-11B got three of them and the other was taken down by a pair of Firebirds with PL-12s. It was useful to come at the F-15 from outside its radar scope and fire at 20nm.

08:00Z: The Korean fighters, having presumably re-fuelled, returned and were destroyed by a pair of the deadly J-11Bs.

09:00Z: The enemy SAG illuminated its radars and was seen to comprise an Arleigh Burke DDG, a Takanami, two Asagiris and 2 Murasames.

10:00Z: The planned massive strike from aircraft, the Houbeis and a Yuan SSK obliterated the SAG, despite an impressive volume of SAMs fired in its defence. This scored zero points. Nearly out of fuel, the Houbeis were now useless and couldn’t even make port, so I left them where they were. Perhaps a supply ship could reach them later?. The two accompanying FFLs were sent to Okinawa.

16:00Z: After a tedious wait, the FFLs arrived at Okinawa and began bombarding land targets. They destroyed all six Patriot sites, two HAWK batteries and a couple of Japanese Chu-SAMs, as well as three Type-12 SSM batteries and a radar. Each ‘mobile unit’ destroyed scores 50VP and fixed installations 25. Out of ammo, the four FFLs used either stayed to observe or went to add their SAMs and SSMs to the convoy escort.

18:00Z: The SSN Charlotte appeared some way SW of the convoy, being detected by a Yuan because she was doing 20 knots. A Cub and chopper hurried to engage but, before they could, the Yuan fired on the AI’s initiative. Charlotte replied and both subs were sunk, scoring nothing for either side.

19:00Z: The KD-88 Flounders returned (again overriding Bingo fuel) and struck at the airfields at Kumojima, Ie Shima, Yoron and Okierabu (all close to Okinawa) with great effect, also destroying a radar. For whatever reason (ongoing fires or just a bug), I began to get regular 50VP awards for damaging runways.

20:00Z: Three more FFLs approached Okinawa and the Sanmenxia (kept back from the earlier attack), wrecked a radar on Kumojima which had survived a KD-88.

21:00Z: ASW Cubs could now get much closer to Okinawa, littering the sea with buoys without finding any subs. They did locate another three SSM batteries and numerous short-ranged SAMs and infantry.

22:00Z: As the FFLs closed-in to engage these targets and the Badgers prepared to bomb the army camps, the convoy hung back at a safe distance, pending the outcome. The plan was to co-ordinate the landing with the paradrop.

However, the 50VP awards for runways kept coming, taking the score to +3,000, so the game ended there as a Triumph.
China lost an SSK and three fighters, while the West lost an SSN, 6 destroyers, 20 fighters, an ELINT plane, 5 choppers and 79 ground elements, as well as widespread damage to dispersal airfields.

It was undoubtedly a Chinese victory and it could be argued that the defences had been weakened enough to guarantee the success of the landings in the two days remaining. Nonetheless, the runway damage bug had distorted the game and the ‘Triumph’ felt false.

Overall, this is an over-long, painfully slow scenario, marred by bugs and a scoring system which makes it feel a bit unreal most of the time. In the end, I was relieved to take the ‘win’ when it ended.

[Gunner98]

Vince

The runway VP issue is indeed an event problem and easy, but annoying for the scenario designer to fix. I have done it a few times.

The problem is that the runways are set up on a repeatable event to score points when a certain damage level is reached (since they cannot be destroyed). It is tempting to do this when there are a large number of runways used as targets. The problem of course is if a runway takes damage more than once (from follow up bombs or fire damage) over that threshold the scoring event is triggered again. As tedious as it is, the designer has to make a non-repeating event for each and every runway to make sure the false scoring doesn't happen.

If you pop a save and explanation over on the tech forum I am sure they can fix it by the next update.

B

[BDukes]

China does not feel that Vietnam or Japan can be successfully occupied, but aims to seize Taiwan and Okinawa. The latter operation is played from the Chinese side. The USS Reagan has been sunk and the Okinawa airbases have been put out of action, but opposition can be expected from submarines, aircraft from Japan and South Korea and the local defences at the objective. Taiwan has not yet entered the conflict, but is patrolling its airspace on the right flank of the Chinese advance.

You are ordered to gain air superiority over Okinawa, neutralise numerous dispersal airfields elsewhere in the Ryukyus, then mount an amphibious invasion where the Americans came ashore in 1945 (near Kadena), backed-up by a paradrop where the US might have staged a second landing in WW2 (at the S tip of Okinawa). There are several US/Japanese army bases on the island, which are marked as targets – these should be hit in support of the landings.

To do this, the PLAN has a small convoy of two LPDs, two LSTs and two LSMs, with the LPDs carrying the great bulk of the troops (88%). This is protected by a screen of eight subs, a close escort of four DDGs, five FFGs and five FFLs and flanked by two squadrons, each consisting of an FFL and four Houbei stealth PCFGs. The subs are mostly Yuan and Song SSKs with anti-shipping missiles, but include a couple of useless Han SSNs, armed only with short-ranged torpedoes and hopelessly outclassed by their American counterparts. All of the ships start as individual units and it is up to you to group them as you see fit. The escorts have choppers, but few carry sonobuoys and the ASW situation does not inspire confidence. SAM protection is a bit more reassuring.

For the paradrop, you have ten ex-Soviet Candid transports near Wuhan. As with the naval landing, the composition of the assault force isn’t exactly realistic, consisting entirely of 7.62mm machine-gun sections!.

The PLAAF has a substantial assortment of aircraft to bring to the party. There are plenty of Flanker and Firebird fighters, armed with PL-15s (in somewhat short supply), Adders and PL-12s. You have adequate tanker and AEW support, though not all Chinese aircraft can refuel in-flight (Flanker J-11Bs and Flounders cannot). The game does not make it clear for the uninitiated, but Probe and Drogue refuelling amount to the same thing – just as well, as the PLAAF relies exclusively on it.

Four Cub ASW planes at Dalian in the N help to plug the gap in this respect, though they need to be brought down and re-based to do their job effectively. I put them at Ningbo and found that they could replace sonobuoys and re-use their loadouts from there if they hadn’t used any torpedoes.

You have 36 planes capable of naval strikes, but many of them lack the range to venture far from mainland China. Sixteen SEAD aircraft with YJ-91s and Kryptons have similar issues.

Conducting land strikes is key to the scenario, but you are poorly served in this respect. You have 18 short-ranged Flounders, six of which have decent KD-88 stand-off weapons and the rest a pile of rubbish. Otherwise, there are a few light-armed, slow-moving drones and eight Badgers, which are lumbered with iron bombs. Most of these planes require daylight and all have long turn-round times. Not encouraging!.

You have plenty of time to get the convoy to the island, but protecting it is another matter, while unloading from the LPDs depends on ferrying troops to shore in choppers and hovercraft. Needless to say, the paradrop can’t be contemplated until the enemy SAMs have been neutralised.

5/7/18 01:00Z (09:00L): I grouped the two Houbei flotillas and sent them both NE at 18 knots to screen that flank. The other ships headed for Okinawa at 14 knots, with the five FFLs screening ahead individually and the subs providing early warning as best they could at Creep.

Ground search radar was in short supply, but a recon Flounder had the endurance to reach Okinawa and find six batteries of Patriots, plus supporting HAWKs. It did what it could to fly in and out of range and provoke the defenders into wasting ammo, but could not make much genuine impression this way.

Two Japanese F-15s went after the Flounder and were countered by a J-11B, the result being the destruction of all three fighters. Neither side scores for planes downed. I found that the PL-15 could hit targets at about 70-80% at 60nm, while the Japanese AAM4B was similarly effective but petered out soon afterwards. Calibrated the PL-15 engagement range to 70nm and later found this was about optimal. They are lethal weapons (or were before v.1307.13).

02:00Z: A Flounder scout downed an unwise EP-3 patrol plane, with its PL-8 missiles having a 55% chance at 3nm.
A big Tomahawk strike (56 missiles) was then detected en route for the convoy. The missiles were only supposed to be effective against land targets, so they were maybe heading for an airbase and the convoy just happened to be in their path. I had enough PL-12-armed CAP available to down the lot, though some got close enough to use-up some naval SAMs as well. I had my fighters close to 5nm before using their PL-12s, which ensured a high percentage of hits.

While this was going on, two more F-15s snuck-up on the recon Flounder. I got it away in time and intercepted with a J-11B. Firing at 70nm, I destroyed both Eagles but, illustrating the pitfalls of combat, forgot to alter doctrine to follow the plotted course while attacking after I had fired. This meant that the Flanker didn’t turn and run when ordered. My correction came too late and I lost the plane. Goes to show why you can’t rely on Missions.

Meanwhile, the six KD-88 Flounders were striking the dispersal airfields on Ishigaki and Tarama in the SW Ryukyus, near Taiwan. They managed to time it perfectly to go Bingo and RTB just before firing!. Knowing that they could fly further without ordnance, I altered doctrine and told them not to RTB for lack of fuel. This did the trick and, with no defences at the targets, all three runways were disabled. However, I was given EIGHT 50VP awards instead of three – this had to be a bug! It would be over ten hours before the Flounders could sortie again.

03:00Z: Six Flounders with Kryptons were sent to soften-up the Okinawa SAMs. Again, they lacked the fuel to reach the target without having their RTB overruled. Two Japanese Eagles then timed it beautifully to disrupt the strike and I was forced to RTB the Flounders anyway. A J-11B moved to intercept, downed an F-15 and then outran the AAM4Bs. The second Eagle kept coming. Another Flanker moved in and fired two pairs of PL-15s, all of which were spoofed on 15% chances. This was not luck, but either a bug or deliberate AI bias somewhere in the hard code. As has been discussed elsewhere, this happens far too often and this was an extreme example. I don’t like doing this, but I’d taken a save before the second Flanker fired and I reloaded from it. Jaw-droppingly, exactly the same thing happened again!. Even on the second reload, it took three shots to kill the target on chances of 74% plus. As it scored no VP, the impact on the game was slight.

Two Badgers each then attacked Shimojima and Miyako airfields in the SW Ryukyus from 2,000’ with bombs. At 201DP each, 24 bombs on each runway should have been more than enough – but no!. Nothing was scored. The bombs are marked as effective against runways in the database.

At least the SEAD Flounders made it to a new base at Luqiao, nearest to Okinawa, with no loss of ordnance, so could be used again in ten hours.

04:00Z: Eight South Korean F-15s made a sweep towards the convoy and were intercepted by a J-11B and two Firebirds. Four Eagles were downed for one Firebird and the Koreans withdrew. With better luck, we’d have gotten another three. PL-12 effective range seems to be about 20nm, as the enemy could outrun them at 25. It was nice when the database just told you these things...

05:00Z: Six surface warships came into AEW view W of Kyushu. An early strike was not possible given the limited range of Chinese aircraft, so I bided my time and tried to set-up an ambush involving the Houbeis and subs.

A second quartet of Badgers bombed Shimojima and Miyako, with no more success than before. It would be 20 hours before I could use them again and I was now effectively out of land strike planes. Bricks without straw…

The only way to deal with the SAMs seemed to be naval gunnery so, mindful of the risk of lurking subs, I advanced the screen of five FFLs and gave them Cub ASW cover as near to Okinawa as I dared. The idea was to split the corvettes and have them come in from wide angles, with two sailing to the SE of the island.

06:00Z: The surviving four Korean Eagles re-appeared W of Kyushu. A J-11B engaged, but the enemy turned tail. Instead, a pair of American F-18s countered, but were outranged and destroyed by PL-15s.

07:00Z: Four Japanese Eagles made a deep sweep towards the convoy. A J-11B got three of them and the other was taken down by a pair of Firebirds with PL-12s. It was useful to come at the F-15 from outside its radar scope and fire at 20nm.

08:00Z: The Korean fighters, having presumably re-fuelled, returned and were destroyed by a pair of the deadly J-11Bs.

09:00Z: The enemy SAG illuminated its radars and was seen to comprise an Arleigh Burke DDG, a Takanami, two Asagiris and 2 Murasames.

10:00Z: The planned massive strike from aircraft, the Houbeis and a Yuan SSK obliterated the SAG, despite an impressive volume of SAMs fired in its defence. This scored zero points. Nearly out of fuel, the Houbeis were now useless and couldn’t even make port, so I left them where they were. Perhaps a supply ship could reach them later?. The two accompanying FFLs were sent to Okinawa.

16:00Z: After a tedious wait, the FFLs arrived at Okinawa and began bombarding land targets. They destroyed all six Patriot sites, two HAWK batteries and a couple of Japanese Chu-SAMs, as well as three Type-12 SSM batteries and a radar. Each ‘mobile unit’ destroyed scores 50VP and fixed installations 25. Out of ammo, the four FFLs used either stayed to observe or went to add their SAMs and SSMs to the convoy escort.

18:00Z: The SSN Charlotte appeared some way SW of the convoy, being detected by a Yuan because she was doing 20 knots. A Cub and chopper hurried to engage but, before they could, the Yuan fired on the AI’s initiative. Charlotte replied and both subs were sunk, scoring nothing for either side.

19:00Z: The KD-88 Flounders returned (again overriding Bingo fuel) and struck at the airfields at Kumojima, Ie Shima, Yoron and Okierabu (all close to Okinawa) with great effect, also destroying a radar. For whatever reason (ongoing fires or just a bug), I began to get regular 50VP awards for damaging runways.

20:00Z: Three more FFLs approached Okinawa and the Sanmenxia (kept back from the earlier attack), wrecked a radar on Kumojima which had survived a KD-88.

21:00Z: ASW Cubs could now get much closer to Okinawa, littering the sea with buoys without finding any subs. They did locate another three SSM batteries and numerous short-ranged SAMs and infantry.

22:00Z: As the FFLs closed-in to engage these targets and the Badgers prepared to bomb the army camps, the convoy hung back at a safe distance, pending the outcome. The plan was to co-ordinate the landing with the paradrop.

However, the 50VP awards for runways kept coming, taking the score to +3,000, so the game ended there as a Triumph.
China lost an SSK and three fighters, while the West lost an SSN, 6 destroyers, 20 fighters, an ELINT plane, 5 choppers and 79 ground elements, as well as widespread damage to dispersal airfields.

It was undoubtedly a Chinese victory and it could be argued that the defences had been weakened enough to guarantee the success of the landings in the two days remaining. Nonetheless, the runway damage bug had distorted the game and the ‘Triumph’ felt false.

Overall, this is an over-long, painfully slow scenario, marred by bugs and a scoring system which makes it feel a bit unreal most of the time. In the end, I was relieved to take the ‘win’ when it ended.

Thanks Fitz. This is one I wish I could do over. They can't all be humdingers!

I'm working on some new stuff. Not sure when and if I'll ever release it publically.

Thanks for your time and review. Definitely learned from it.

Mike

[BDukes]

Vince

The runway VP issue is indeed an event problem and easy, but annoying for the scenario designer to fix. I have done it a few times.

The problem is that the runways are set up on a repeatable event to score points when a certain damage level is reached (since they cannot be destroyed). It is tempting to do this when there are a large number of runways used as targets. The problem of course is if a runway takes damage more than once (from follow up bombs or fire damage) over that threshold the scoring event is triggered again. As tedious as it is, the designer has to make a non-repeating event for each and every runway to make sure the false scoring doesn't happen.

If you pop a save and explanation over on the tech forum I am sure they can fix it by the next update.

B

Thanks Bart. Appreciate you pointing out the issue and the solution!

Mike

[Gunner98]

No problem

This one is a PITA and I have been caught by it several times.

B