Following the disastrous events of the opening day of the war in the Persian Gulf, NATO and its regional allies now have the daunting task of re-opening the Straits of Hormuz to navigation. With billions of dollars-worth of petrochemicals locked in the Gulf, there is enormous pressure to make some headway in the five days the scenario lasts.
As this is another lengthy and complex affair, I’ll once again be splitting the AAR into this introduction and up to five day-by-day episodes. I’ll say right away that, having assessed the scenario, I have very little belief in my ability to win it, not least because changes to the game parameters since it was designed have swung the balance heavily against NATO. This may, of course, be no more than a realistic assessment of what might have happened to an overstretched US in such a global conflict.
As the game starts, the Straits are sealed with an extensive minefield, reinforced by SSMs, swarms of Iranian small craft and a few larger warships. Both the Soviet and Iranian Air Forces have a strong presence at the nearby military complex of Bandar Abbas, with numerous Fencer strike planes covered by a variety of fighters (mainly MiG-23s and Phantoms). All of this is protected by a nest of SAMs which may or may not have been degraded in earlier fighting.
Further up the Gulf, there are Iranian airbases at Bushehr and Omidiyeh, powerfully backed by MiG-29s, F-14s, more Fencers and maybe Flankers inland at Shiraz. Still further afield at bases in Turkmenistan are elements of Soviet Long Range Aviation capable of cruise missile strikes at Western-aligned shipping and installations.
To round things off, at least one Iranian and several Soviet subs are in-theatre, the latter including an Oscar I with 24 Shipwreck missiles.
All this is set against the background of India’s parallel war with Pakistan. India is considered Unfriendly, leaning towards Moscow, while Pakistan is Neutral. Especially given the similarities between some of each country’s units and Soviet ones, it is incumbent on the player to avoid any incidents which could make a bad situation much worse.
Another political issue is the status of Saudi Arabia, which is providing NATO with intel and the use of its Gulf base at King Abdulaziz airport but will not commit to the conflict. There are rumours of a Saudi mission to turn Sudan away from the Soviet orbit and the presence of a marker on Sudanese territory suggests that this could become a distraction. It is also possible to burn VP to hold a press conference which could sway the Saudi leadership into taking the plunge.
NATO’s main asset is the CV Saratoga, quite lightly escorted by a Belknap CG and two Spruance-class destroyers and with an oiler in tow. Sara has a substantial and varied air group but only a few are F-14s with Phoenix and Sparrow missiles. In what was, no doubt, initially intended to be a good thing, the carrier’s F/A-18s carry AMRAAM A missiles. In times gone by, these would have been a powerful asset but, with the new missile dynamics, they have an effective range of perhaps 3nm and have been reduced to close-in dogfighting weapons. Unfortunately, the Soviets have Alamos with a reach of 10-20nm (depending on version) and Iranian Tomcats have Phoenixes and Sejil/HAWKs which can fire nearly 30. On this basis, gaining air superiority is going to be highly problematical.
Matters aren’t helped here by the usual Fury logistical challenges. Stocks of A2A missiles and SAMs alike are not super-abundant and much depends on two replenishment vessels making their way N with a single light escort each. The auxiliary Wabash is supposed to deliver weapons to Saratoga, while the Austral Rainbow is optimistically bound for Said ibn Sultan naval base in Oman, perilously close to enemy strike assets, to deliver munitions for the land bases in the upper Gulf. Both of these ships have little choice but to hurry forward, vulnerable to submarine ambushes that their escorts cannot effectively oppose (HMAS Hobart, accompanying Austral Rainbow, doesn’t even have a helicopter).
Unwisely pushed ahead of Saratoga is TG Elliot, which consists of two more Spruances with a frigate each from the UK, Australia, Spain and France. Note that all of the Spruances in the scenario have only Sea Sparrows for air defence and every other cruiser, destroyer and frigate has a different SAM battery type. Sailing singly in the Arabian Sea are the cruisers Philippine Sea and Texas and the Spruance Merrill, all feeling very nervous about the submarine threat. In summary, there seemed little choice but to have Saratoga stop and wait for the other elements to concentrate on her, even if this meant that TG Elliot had to turn about and head back SE. I’ve even routed Austral Rainbow and Hobart in her general direction to side-step any pre-arranged submarine attack and get them closer to the carrier’s protection – the exact timing of any move to Oman can wait on developments.
It might be possible to use Saratoga to reduce the outlying Iranian base at Char Bahar while she is waiting, especially as it would give her air group a chance of some practice against relatively weak enemy F-4s and clear them out of her flank. Even here, though, we have to be careful and keep enough fighters back to defend against sudden attacks from Fencers at Bandar Abbas, long-ranged bombers from Turkmenistan or the Oscar. I also have to weigh whether it is worth using my precious Phoenixes against inferior opposition. It might be better not to bother.
In due course, we will have to tackle the SAMs and fighters around the Straits, so using my pre-assigned AMRAAM loadouts early and then re-arming the Hornets with HARMs might be a good idea. The AMRAAMs would be best used against incoming missiles the way they are now, as missiles can’t fire back. Whether we use them thusly or against Char Bahar will depend on what the enemy do in the opening stages.
Away to the SW of Saratoga, the Italian destroyer Aliseo is saddled with looking after a host of empty tankers milling around as they wait for it to be safe to enter the Gulf – the furthest is 256nm from her position!. Aliseo has lousy sonar and two short-ranged AB212 choppers, one of which had to be switched from recon to long-endurance ASW. I felt like sending her to join Saratoga, but this seemed like dereliction of duty. As it stands, both she and the tankers are a banquet for any lurking Victor or Oscar. I’ve given Aliseo an extensive patrol zone, launched a chopper while sending her the only immediately available Orion from Thumrait in Oman and must hope for the best.
Just SE of the Straits, off Said ibn Sultan, is another accident waiting to happen. The helicopter-carrier Tripoli is accompanied by a gaggle of Gulf States PGMs, lightweight American patrol boats and some minesweepers from the States and the UK. They are hopelessly vulnerable to both air and submarine attack and the enemy should have no trouble sinking the lot if they want to. To mitigate this, I’ve sent the nearby SSN Buffalo to cover them to seaward (assuming that she can get there in time), packed-off Tripoli’s air group (and a hapless SAR Wessex) to the Omani shore base so that I don’t lose points for them when the ship sinks and arranged such feeble CAP as I can from the Emirati airbase at Al Dhafra (four F-16s available with point-blank AMRAAMs), assigning a tanker for support. I’ll also use a Seahawk for ASW but she’ll run at the first sign of approaching fighters.
If they somehow survive, the light warships could be useful against the Iranian swarm in the Straits. The minesweepers and Sea Dragon choppers might even get clear skies to deal with the minefield if something miraculous happens with the air superiority equation but experience has taught me that, no matter how hard you try, there are always more mines.
At Minhad airbase in the UAE, there are four Super Puma choppers with Exocets, so I’ve told them to make an immediate attempt on an Iranian destroyer we’ve spotted in the Straits. Perhaps they can get the job done before the enemy get their CAP organised and the base has the ammo for later sorties if they survive. I’ll have to abort if there is any sign of serious opposition, as the only fighter cover would have to come from the aforesaid quartet of F-16s.
At Al Dhafra are some F-16s with attack loadouts. I could have converted these to carry AMRAAMs for CAP but it seemed better to give them HARMs for a co-ordinated move on the Straits with Saratoga in due course. At least HARMs are stand-off weapons. Some hopeless old-model Mirages were given bombs to supplement their lamentable A2A armament – they might just help reduce the swarm a little.
Just SE of Qatar, the frigates Gallery and Coventry have somehow survived Persian Pounce. As in that scenario, Gallery had no SAMs loaded, so I corrected it. The pair have to mind a group of loaded tankers which is waiting to leave the Gulf. Given their limited capabilities, they could not do this against a determined enemy effort and I’ve had to do the best I can with a CAP mission and the mixed bag of French, US and Gulf States fighters in Qatar, Bahrain and at King Abdulaziz in Saudi.
These might also be required to prop-up the defence of Kuwait. No risk of a land invasion here, judging by Scenario Platforms, but air strikes are a risk. It seemed wise to launch two Kuwaiti PCFGs from their naval base to avoid losing them in port. However, there are also a fair few RHIBs and ROVs in harbour. It seems absurd to launch them but I have to consider the ton of VP the AI could get for ‘sinking NATO submarines’ if it clobbers the dock. Four Patriot batteries have a limited field of fire and are likely ineffective beyond 20nm, so they may be of modest use.
Kuwaiti airbases hold a decent-sized force of British, US and local aircraft and there is scope for an attack with ARMs on a Gammon site that could make taking-off and landing an issue (even if it has no more than six shots, by my calculation). Some Super Pumas could also be used against any enemy shipping, though there might well be none (in which case they might be ferried S). None of the fighters would stand much chance against the Tomcats and Fulcrums at Shiraz if they chose to get involved but they could possibly handle the local Iranian Tigers and MiG-21s. On the whole, though, our operations in the upper reaches of the Gulf promise to be largely defensive in nature.
So, as you can see, a daunting task awaits...
Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
Moderator: MOD_Command
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
Looking forward to this one.
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And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
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And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
Day 1 (19:00Z 18/2/94 to 18:00Z 19/2/94)
19:00Z 18/2/94 : TG Elliot, Merrill, Philippine Sea, TG Wabash and Texas were ordered to converge on Saratoga, reversing course in the first case. As ever, there was a balance to be struck between getting where you need to be and avoiding submarine ambushes, so I opted for fastest Cruise speed in most cases. Texas’s best defence was speed and she is nuclear-powered, so I had her go at Flank. For air operations, Phoenixes were set to engage at 30nm, Sparrows at 10, Supers at 5 and AMRAAMs at a ridiculous two!. A number of Saratoga’s aircraft loadouts were altered, increasing ASW and tanker coverage. Most of the Intruders were re-equipped with HARMs.
The ROVs in Kuwait were launched to avoid a sucker punch against their dock but, so far, this has proved unnecessary and most of them have either run out of fuel or can’t be RTB’d. As yet, this has had no consequences in scoring terms.
The things are basically useless, being too far from the Straits and should probably be removed in any scenario updates.
The four Pumas from Minhad in the UAE used the rocky spine of the Ras al Khaimah peninsula to disguise their approach and thus attack the Iranian destroyer Palang. Frustratingly, they couldn’t get a clear fix on the target, either with their own radars or via a supporting Aries and Sentry. Feeling exposed, they fired anyway and headed home – all eight of their Exocets were wasted, though it remained a mystery as to how the destroyer had moved out of seeker range at 5 knots.
One of Saratoga’s F-14s, with a peacetime Phoenix loadout, intercepted and destroyed a Soviet Badger recon NW of the carrier for 3VP.
The transfer of helicopters from TG Tripoli to Said ibn Sultan, Oman, was only partially successful due to the latter’s lack of capacity. Two Pioneer UAVs were sent onward to Masirah to free-up space, but other aircraft, notably two of the Sea Dragon minesweeping choppers, had to return to Tripoli.
20:00Z: An apparent tanker approached the throng around Aliseo and a patrolling Orion revealed it to be an Iranian armed merchant cruiser. Two Otomats from the Italian frigate did severe damage and the intruder turned for port at 6 knots, with fires and flooding. Mindful that there could be others, Aliseo conserved her last two missiles and left the AMC for a Viking with Harpoons but it sank before the plane could get there. It scored nothing.
21:00Z: USS Philippine Sea reached the general area of TG Saratoga, prompting a message, but no VP.
22:00Z: Four Hornets with AMRAAMs swept the Char Bahar area. The first pair engaged two Phantoms, downing both but losing a plane to the only answering Sparrow that managed to lock-on. This scored nothing and cost me 5VP (including the inevitable downed pilot). On this basis, there was no point in engaging Iranian aircraft unless I had to (though it would sometimes be unavoidable) and it seemed best to withdraw, accepting that Char Bahar would continue to be a thorn in our side.
The three surviving Hornets had gotten to some 120nm from Saratoga when they all decided it would be a great idea to fly 400nm in the other direction to Arabia to refuel from a tanker there, despite having their own pair of KA-6 tankers flying ahead of them!. Even after I had cancelled their refuelling privileges, the KC-10 over Oman had to be restrained from flying to meet them and abandoning the CAP over USS Tripoli. A recent change has worsened the current shambolic state of in-flight refuelling by having tankers fly to meet their customers. This can, of course, put the valuable tanker in a highly-dangerous situation and such choices should be left to the player. It would be great if the developers could take a long, hard look at in-flight refuelling and, basically, restore it to the satisfactory way it was before ‘Tiny’.
23:00Z: There was an update on the India-Pakistan situation. No actual fighting yet but some artillery exchanges in Kashmir and terrorist acts inside India. We were warned that the Indian Navy might sortie from Mumbai and that we should avoid the area.
19/2/94 00:00Z: USS Merrill got within range of Saratoga and reported that the Pakistani Navy was underway from Karachi.
01:00Z: To ease the monotony, a light-armed F-14 was sent after a Badger patrolling off the Indian coast. Despite issues with premature refuelling from the supporting Shadow tanker, the bogey was confirmed as Russian and disposed-of.
02:00Z: An F-16 from Al Dhafra (Abu Dhabi) was sent to probe the Bandar Abbas defences. In addition to fixed Gammon and Guideline batteries (one each), it found three Grumbles, three Gainfuls and numerous Gauntlets, Geckoes, Gadflies and AA. So much for tales (Briefing) of damage done in earlier fighting!. The plane also spotted four AMCs with the rather odd names (for the Islamic Republic) of Foroughi, (especially) Pahlavi (the former Shah’s family name), Tudeh and Bakhtiar. Enemy fighters reacted when the Falcon closed to 65nm of the Gammon, suggesting that we could get into HARM range OK. Even so, an estimated 192 Grumbles would take some wearing-down. Eight Floggers chased the F-16 as far as the tip of Ras al Khaimah but didn’t take the bait and pursue into Patriot range. The Gammon used two of its six missiles, as I’d hoped.
03:00Z: As dawn broke, a second F-16 repeated the exercise. Again, the Gammon fired twice as the American dove and ran. Six MiG-23s pursued and, this time, four of them followed me all the way to Abu Dhabi. As the Patriot battery opened-up, one Flogger was downed but the AI made multiple 15% spoof rolls and I missed again and again on 40-76% odds as the Russians stooged around, inviting further shots. After a dozen misses, I decided I wasn’t having this and reloaded. This time, the first four Patriots all scored kills!. It gets worse later…
An Emirati recon Mirage was sent to continue the process. This time, the Gammon didn’t fire and the Flogger posse broke-off short of Patriot range.
While this was happening, a Victor III surprised TG Elliot and loosed two torpedoes at USS Peterson. Both Peterson and her sister, Elliot, tried going Engaged Defensive and outmanoeuvring the tinfish and had to be bludgeoned into getting the hell away instead. They did fire torpedoes down the bearing, however and this caused the SSN to evade and lose its wires. Two Seahawks did their best to foul-up their attacks but eventually sank the Victor. Jaw-droppingly, NO VP!!
04:00Z: The Victor must have sent a contact report. An Oscar launched a batch of seven Shipwrecks from the cover of a cluster of fishing boats off the Indian coast and, with uncanny co-ordination, a squadron of maybe 18 Iranian Mirages sortied from Char Bahar. I split-up and scattered TG Elliot to make a less compact target for the Shipwrecks. Some AMRAAM Hornets from the carrier tried to intercept the missiles but, with an effective range of 2nm, they could only attempt this from right in front and couldn’t get there in time as they passed to the N of the carrier. Too late, I noticed that the Spanish frigate Cataluna had gone Engaged Defensive, steered over 90 degrees contrary to the course I’d ordered and blundered straight into the Victor’s torpedoes. These had an incredible life of over 90 minutes but had been circling aimlessly until this happened. This was completely unacceptable, so I went back to the last save (which I really don’t like having to do). It seems that ships, as well as aircraft, have to be told not to AutoEvade these days. It would be better if the option was simply removed from the game (instead of being the default) as it is totally harmful.
Troubles were coming in whole battalions. My ASW aircraft and choppers, unbelievably, were trying to engage the Shipwrecks, despite vast distances and a total lack of suitable weapons!. The only cure was to Unassign them, delaying my attempt to send two Vikings after the Oscar.
The seven Shipwrecks sank the star-crossed Cataluna for -25VP but the scatter plan prevented worse losses – for now. The Oscar followed-up with two more salvoes. Of these, one was fired on the same bearing as the first and missed completely.
Five F/A-18s with Sparrows moved to engage the Mirages, despite trying to Afterburner 150nm in the other direction to attack the Shipwrecks, ignoring the Mission I’d set-up to tackle the Iranians. Once they’d sorted their act out, they downed 14 Mirages which, of course, scored nothing. The strike planes loosed a half-dozen Exocets at USS Peterson but the destroyer shot them all down.
Unfortunately, doing so slowed Peterson just enough that the third salvo of Shipwrecks locked onto her, with fatal results (-50VP). The AI then got really lucky as, despite my attempts to scatter TG Elliot, the Elliot herself and the French La Fayette were perfectly lined-up for the Shipwrecks to roll them over in turn. You can’t easily stop Shipwrecks with Sea Sparrows. Another 75VP gone as HMS Argyll and HMAS Sydney made their escape and joined the carrier.
I’d done my best to protect TG Elliot by sending them back to join Saratoga but, sometimes, there is no helping situations like this. They probably fell into a trap intended for the carrier.
While all this havoc was going on, an Iranian Orion sniped the Omani PGM Dhofar with a Harpoon volley. This, at least, cost no points. Nevertheless, at -148VP, things were looking grim.
05:00Z: After a week away in London, I restarted by downloading v.1.06.1328.14, which has supposedly fixed the bug that caused ASW aircraft to chase missiles (and SAMs, too, apparently). Not proven fixed in this playthrough yet, but I’ll take other peoples’ word for it.
Noticed that the Harpoon attack had sent TG Tripoli Engaged Defensive and that the helicopter carrier was now 2.5nm inland!. Thankfully (or not), I got her out to sea again.
The UAE Mirage returned to the task and teased the Bandar Abbas Gammon into wasting its remaining two missiles.
06:00Z: Six Floggers chased the Mirage back to Abu Dhabi and were engaged by the Patriots. What followed made no sense at all. The Patriots not only missed but failed to even achieve a hit calculation on the Message Log – all either got spoofed or flew past the MiG-23s as if they weren’t there. It wasn’t altitude, as the missiles I checked were all at a similar height to their targets. They just weren’t locking-on. Disgustedly, I replayed this five times and didn’t get a single hit calculation in about a hundred shots. Basically, Patriots CANNOT hit Floggers. Given the earlier results, I can only assume that this was introduced in v1.06.1328.14. Other SAMs still seem to work OK (though I’ve only tried RIM-66As and Stingers), so it MIGHT just be a problem with the Patriot. I tried to get some screen shots but my laptop’s interface simply doesn’t seem to support this. So the Russians got away with it and I really didn’t need this kind of hindrance.
07:00Z: I was fined another 4VP for downed pilots who had gone down with their ships and were not even shown on the map. #BinTheScript.
A second Emirati recon Mirage sortied to confirm that the Gammon was out of ammo. It wasn’t fired-upon, so there was hope. Again, 6 MiG-23s pursued and the Patriots again failed to achieve a single hit calculation.
I arranged for two Phoenix F-14s to rendezvous with an Extender over Oman, then try to kill some Floggers. Unfortunately, another F-14 on CAP over Saratoga decided it would fly to Arabia to refuel, so the tanker altered course towards it!. Only Unassigning and RTB’ing the CAP plane (with tanker privileges rescinded) cured the situation. Basically, put nothing on Refuelling Allowed unless you have to until someone fixes this mess.
08:00Z: The first pair of Vikings had failed to locate the Oscar (which had three Shipwrecks left and was perfectly capable of sinking the Wabash, for instance). However, the relief aircraft got a fix from a sonobuoy and sank this particular megalodon. Ludicrously, NO VP!!. The scoring system in this scenario needs serious revision.
The first pair of Phoenix F-14s (with four missiles total) managed to down a couple of Floggers.
09:00Z: Four Floggers pursued as far as Muscat, Oman. One went RTB but the others ran into the next pair of Tomcats and were all destroyed, though I had to chase the last one with Sparrows and stop the F-14 unnecessarily bunking-off to a tanker as it was about to fire.
By total Murphy’s Law, the Floggers had detected the Tripoli group and sent a contact report (though how the enemy had been unaware of them with their Orions stooging around, I don’t know). Immediately, eight Mirages sortied from Char Bahar. All I could do was improvise a defence by recalling the four F-14s from RTB, using Sparrows and Sidewinders. A combination of these and the Tripoli’s basic SAMs took-out six of the attackers but the helicopter carrier was struck by four AS.30 missiles and left 85% damaged and aflame. All choppers on-board, including the Sea Dragons (with hindsight, I should have launched as many as possible) were destroyed and every one of them generated a downed pilot. One of the returning F-14s was chased by a Phantom from Char Bahar and I only just noticed in time to save it.
The Tripoli duly died of her wounds, costing me an eye-watering 200VP in addition to the choppers and downed pilots. I did not put her in this hopelessly exposed position and the AI was always going to enjoy this sumptuous free lunch – it was just a matter of when. Trying to retreat her towards the Saratoga would have meant crossing a wide stretch of exposed ocean, while moving her towards the Straits would have been suicide. Especially as the mineclearing theoretically has to be done sometime, leaving her where she was had to be the lowest-risk option but there’s no allowing for things like the chance sighting by the Floggers. At least there can only be a couple of Mirages left now but the Soviets still have lots of Fencers and maybe Long Range Aviation in reserve. Best bet seems to be to keep Saratoga out of sight as much as possible.
For now, I decided to spread the remaining liabilities by sailing the minesweepers SE down the Omani coast in pairs every half-hour. They have decent endurance and would be in position to screen the tankers if I am ever in a position to use the Special Option which moves them instantly to the Gulf approaches. The low-endurance US patrol boats and Omani/Emirati PGMs had to be left in-place.
10:00Z: The third pair of F-14s arrived and downed three more Floggers.
11:00Z: The fourth pair of F-14s (with four Phoenixes each) bagged another three Floggers.
12:00Z: It was tempting to go ahead and mount a big SEAD strike on Bandar Abbas but there were still too many fighters over the Straits, so another wave of Phoenix F-14 attacks was called-for first.
15:00Z: The F-14s returned but the first pair scored no kills whatsoever. The second pair didn’t do much better but downed a Flogger and (by accident) a Phantom.
16:00Z: The third pair of Tomcats managed two more Floggers. Maybe 6-12 left.
17:00Z: Out of patience, I launched the SEAD strike. Four Hornets, 6 Intruders, two Phoenix Tomcats (loaded heavy) and two Prowlers would rendezvous with three tankers over Oman, then proceed to the Straits, where they would be joined by more HARM-bearing planes from Abu Dhabi. A couple of Tomahawks were launched at the Guideline site to encourage the SAMs to light-up. The strike won’t eliminate the SAMs, but the next one or the one after that might, assuming I don’t run out of ARMs first.
18:00Z: Day One ended with the score at a parlous -334VP. So far, we’ve lost a CVH, 2 destroyers, two frigates, a PGM, a fighter and eight choppers. Enemy losses stand at an SSGN, SSN, AMC, 21 fighters, 20 attack planes and two recon Badgers.
It’s been frustrating. Most of the trouble has been down to bugs which are none of Bart’s doing but the scoring system, in particular, needs looking-at. So far, I’ve only been able to score for Soviet (not Iranian) aircraft and the lack of VP for the Oscar and Victor was unbelievable. Perhaps I can score for destroying SAM sites or SSMs, possibly for getting ships (including tankers) into or through the Straits. Fact is, I don’t know.
Anyway, I’ll take a shortish break, then soldier-on without much hope into Day Two. Neutralising the defences around the Straits is not entirely out of the question, though it would only take the MiG-29s and F-14s at Shiraz replacing the Floggers to make it impossible. Clearing the minefield is almost certainly not going to happen, which would mean huge VP losses should any tankers attempt to pass the narrows. We’ll see...
19:00Z 18/2/94 : TG Elliot, Merrill, Philippine Sea, TG Wabash and Texas were ordered to converge on Saratoga, reversing course in the first case. As ever, there was a balance to be struck between getting where you need to be and avoiding submarine ambushes, so I opted for fastest Cruise speed in most cases. Texas’s best defence was speed and she is nuclear-powered, so I had her go at Flank. For air operations, Phoenixes were set to engage at 30nm, Sparrows at 10, Supers at 5 and AMRAAMs at a ridiculous two!. A number of Saratoga’s aircraft loadouts were altered, increasing ASW and tanker coverage. Most of the Intruders were re-equipped with HARMs.
The ROVs in Kuwait were launched to avoid a sucker punch against their dock but, so far, this has proved unnecessary and most of them have either run out of fuel or can’t be RTB’d. As yet, this has had no consequences in scoring terms.
The things are basically useless, being too far from the Straits and should probably be removed in any scenario updates.
The four Pumas from Minhad in the UAE used the rocky spine of the Ras al Khaimah peninsula to disguise their approach and thus attack the Iranian destroyer Palang. Frustratingly, they couldn’t get a clear fix on the target, either with their own radars or via a supporting Aries and Sentry. Feeling exposed, they fired anyway and headed home – all eight of their Exocets were wasted, though it remained a mystery as to how the destroyer had moved out of seeker range at 5 knots.
One of Saratoga’s F-14s, with a peacetime Phoenix loadout, intercepted and destroyed a Soviet Badger recon NW of the carrier for 3VP.
The transfer of helicopters from TG Tripoli to Said ibn Sultan, Oman, was only partially successful due to the latter’s lack of capacity. Two Pioneer UAVs were sent onward to Masirah to free-up space, but other aircraft, notably two of the Sea Dragon minesweeping choppers, had to return to Tripoli.
20:00Z: An apparent tanker approached the throng around Aliseo and a patrolling Orion revealed it to be an Iranian armed merchant cruiser. Two Otomats from the Italian frigate did severe damage and the intruder turned for port at 6 knots, with fires and flooding. Mindful that there could be others, Aliseo conserved her last two missiles and left the AMC for a Viking with Harpoons but it sank before the plane could get there. It scored nothing.
21:00Z: USS Philippine Sea reached the general area of TG Saratoga, prompting a message, but no VP.
22:00Z: Four Hornets with AMRAAMs swept the Char Bahar area. The first pair engaged two Phantoms, downing both but losing a plane to the only answering Sparrow that managed to lock-on. This scored nothing and cost me 5VP (including the inevitable downed pilot). On this basis, there was no point in engaging Iranian aircraft unless I had to (though it would sometimes be unavoidable) and it seemed best to withdraw, accepting that Char Bahar would continue to be a thorn in our side.
The three surviving Hornets had gotten to some 120nm from Saratoga when they all decided it would be a great idea to fly 400nm in the other direction to Arabia to refuel from a tanker there, despite having their own pair of KA-6 tankers flying ahead of them!. Even after I had cancelled their refuelling privileges, the KC-10 over Oman had to be restrained from flying to meet them and abandoning the CAP over USS Tripoli. A recent change has worsened the current shambolic state of in-flight refuelling by having tankers fly to meet their customers. This can, of course, put the valuable tanker in a highly-dangerous situation and such choices should be left to the player. It would be great if the developers could take a long, hard look at in-flight refuelling and, basically, restore it to the satisfactory way it was before ‘Tiny’.
23:00Z: There was an update on the India-Pakistan situation. No actual fighting yet but some artillery exchanges in Kashmir and terrorist acts inside India. We were warned that the Indian Navy might sortie from Mumbai and that we should avoid the area.
19/2/94 00:00Z: USS Merrill got within range of Saratoga and reported that the Pakistani Navy was underway from Karachi.
01:00Z: To ease the monotony, a light-armed F-14 was sent after a Badger patrolling off the Indian coast. Despite issues with premature refuelling from the supporting Shadow tanker, the bogey was confirmed as Russian and disposed-of.
02:00Z: An F-16 from Al Dhafra (Abu Dhabi) was sent to probe the Bandar Abbas defences. In addition to fixed Gammon and Guideline batteries (one each), it found three Grumbles, three Gainfuls and numerous Gauntlets, Geckoes, Gadflies and AA. So much for tales (Briefing) of damage done in earlier fighting!. The plane also spotted four AMCs with the rather odd names (for the Islamic Republic) of Foroughi, (especially) Pahlavi (the former Shah’s family name), Tudeh and Bakhtiar. Enemy fighters reacted when the Falcon closed to 65nm of the Gammon, suggesting that we could get into HARM range OK. Even so, an estimated 192 Grumbles would take some wearing-down. Eight Floggers chased the F-16 as far as the tip of Ras al Khaimah but didn’t take the bait and pursue into Patriot range. The Gammon used two of its six missiles, as I’d hoped.
03:00Z: As dawn broke, a second F-16 repeated the exercise. Again, the Gammon fired twice as the American dove and ran. Six MiG-23s pursued and, this time, four of them followed me all the way to Abu Dhabi. As the Patriot battery opened-up, one Flogger was downed but the AI made multiple 15% spoof rolls and I missed again and again on 40-76% odds as the Russians stooged around, inviting further shots. After a dozen misses, I decided I wasn’t having this and reloaded. This time, the first four Patriots all scored kills!. It gets worse later…
An Emirati recon Mirage was sent to continue the process. This time, the Gammon didn’t fire and the Flogger posse broke-off short of Patriot range.
While this was happening, a Victor III surprised TG Elliot and loosed two torpedoes at USS Peterson. Both Peterson and her sister, Elliot, tried going Engaged Defensive and outmanoeuvring the tinfish and had to be bludgeoned into getting the hell away instead. They did fire torpedoes down the bearing, however and this caused the SSN to evade and lose its wires. Two Seahawks did their best to foul-up their attacks but eventually sank the Victor. Jaw-droppingly, NO VP!!
04:00Z: The Victor must have sent a contact report. An Oscar launched a batch of seven Shipwrecks from the cover of a cluster of fishing boats off the Indian coast and, with uncanny co-ordination, a squadron of maybe 18 Iranian Mirages sortied from Char Bahar. I split-up and scattered TG Elliot to make a less compact target for the Shipwrecks. Some AMRAAM Hornets from the carrier tried to intercept the missiles but, with an effective range of 2nm, they could only attempt this from right in front and couldn’t get there in time as they passed to the N of the carrier. Too late, I noticed that the Spanish frigate Cataluna had gone Engaged Defensive, steered over 90 degrees contrary to the course I’d ordered and blundered straight into the Victor’s torpedoes. These had an incredible life of over 90 minutes but had been circling aimlessly until this happened. This was completely unacceptable, so I went back to the last save (which I really don’t like having to do). It seems that ships, as well as aircraft, have to be told not to AutoEvade these days. It would be better if the option was simply removed from the game (instead of being the default) as it is totally harmful.
Troubles were coming in whole battalions. My ASW aircraft and choppers, unbelievably, were trying to engage the Shipwrecks, despite vast distances and a total lack of suitable weapons!. The only cure was to Unassign them, delaying my attempt to send two Vikings after the Oscar.
The seven Shipwrecks sank the star-crossed Cataluna for -25VP but the scatter plan prevented worse losses – for now. The Oscar followed-up with two more salvoes. Of these, one was fired on the same bearing as the first and missed completely.
Five F/A-18s with Sparrows moved to engage the Mirages, despite trying to Afterburner 150nm in the other direction to attack the Shipwrecks, ignoring the Mission I’d set-up to tackle the Iranians. Once they’d sorted their act out, they downed 14 Mirages which, of course, scored nothing. The strike planes loosed a half-dozen Exocets at USS Peterson but the destroyer shot them all down.
Unfortunately, doing so slowed Peterson just enough that the third salvo of Shipwrecks locked onto her, with fatal results (-50VP). The AI then got really lucky as, despite my attempts to scatter TG Elliot, the Elliot herself and the French La Fayette were perfectly lined-up for the Shipwrecks to roll them over in turn. You can’t easily stop Shipwrecks with Sea Sparrows. Another 75VP gone as HMS Argyll and HMAS Sydney made their escape and joined the carrier.
I’d done my best to protect TG Elliot by sending them back to join Saratoga but, sometimes, there is no helping situations like this. They probably fell into a trap intended for the carrier.
While all this havoc was going on, an Iranian Orion sniped the Omani PGM Dhofar with a Harpoon volley. This, at least, cost no points. Nevertheless, at -148VP, things were looking grim.
05:00Z: After a week away in London, I restarted by downloading v.1.06.1328.14, which has supposedly fixed the bug that caused ASW aircraft to chase missiles (and SAMs, too, apparently). Not proven fixed in this playthrough yet, but I’ll take other peoples’ word for it.
Noticed that the Harpoon attack had sent TG Tripoli Engaged Defensive and that the helicopter carrier was now 2.5nm inland!. Thankfully (or not), I got her out to sea again.
The UAE Mirage returned to the task and teased the Bandar Abbas Gammon into wasting its remaining two missiles.
06:00Z: Six Floggers chased the Mirage back to Abu Dhabi and were engaged by the Patriots. What followed made no sense at all. The Patriots not only missed but failed to even achieve a hit calculation on the Message Log – all either got spoofed or flew past the MiG-23s as if they weren’t there. It wasn’t altitude, as the missiles I checked were all at a similar height to their targets. They just weren’t locking-on. Disgustedly, I replayed this five times and didn’t get a single hit calculation in about a hundred shots. Basically, Patriots CANNOT hit Floggers. Given the earlier results, I can only assume that this was introduced in v1.06.1328.14. Other SAMs still seem to work OK (though I’ve only tried RIM-66As and Stingers), so it MIGHT just be a problem with the Patriot. I tried to get some screen shots but my laptop’s interface simply doesn’t seem to support this. So the Russians got away with it and I really didn’t need this kind of hindrance.
07:00Z: I was fined another 4VP for downed pilots who had gone down with their ships and were not even shown on the map. #BinTheScript.
A second Emirati recon Mirage sortied to confirm that the Gammon was out of ammo. It wasn’t fired-upon, so there was hope. Again, 6 MiG-23s pursued and the Patriots again failed to achieve a single hit calculation.
I arranged for two Phoenix F-14s to rendezvous with an Extender over Oman, then try to kill some Floggers. Unfortunately, another F-14 on CAP over Saratoga decided it would fly to Arabia to refuel, so the tanker altered course towards it!. Only Unassigning and RTB’ing the CAP plane (with tanker privileges rescinded) cured the situation. Basically, put nothing on Refuelling Allowed unless you have to until someone fixes this mess.
08:00Z: The first pair of Vikings had failed to locate the Oscar (which had three Shipwrecks left and was perfectly capable of sinking the Wabash, for instance). However, the relief aircraft got a fix from a sonobuoy and sank this particular megalodon. Ludicrously, NO VP!!. The scoring system in this scenario needs serious revision.
The first pair of Phoenix F-14s (with four missiles total) managed to down a couple of Floggers.
09:00Z: Four Floggers pursued as far as Muscat, Oman. One went RTB but the others ran into the next pair of Tomcats and were all destroyed, though I had to chase the last one with Sparrows and stop the F-14 unnecessarily bunking-off to a tanker as it was about to fire.
By total Murphy’s Law, the Floggers had detected the Tripoli group and sent a contact report (though how the enemy had been unaware of them with their Orions stooging around, I don’t know). Immediately, eight Mirages sortied from Char Bahar. All I could do was improvise a defence by recalling the four F-14s from RTB, using Sparrows and Sidewinders. A combination of these and the Tripoli’s basic SAMs took-out six of the attackers but the helicopter carrier was struck by four AS.30 missiles and left 85% damaged and aflame. All choppers on-board, including the Sea Dragons (with hindsight, I should have launched as many as possible) were destroyed and every one of them generated a downed pilot. One of the returning F-14s was chased by a Phantom from Char Bahar and I only just noticed in time to save it.
The Tripoli duly died of her wounds, costing me an eye-watering 200VP in addition to the choppers and downed pilots. I did not put her in this hopelessly exposed position and the AI was always going to enjoy this sumptuous free lunch – it was just a matter of when. Trying to retreat her towards the Saratoga would have meant crossing a wide stretch of exposed ocean, while moving her towards the Straits would have been suicide. Especially as the mineclearing theoretically has to be done sometime, leaving her where she was had to be the lowest-risk option but there’s no allowing for things like the chance sighting by the Floggers. At least there can only be a couple of Mirages left now but the Soviets still have lots of Fencers and maybe Long Range Aviation in reserve. Best bet seems to be to keep Saratoga out of sight as much as possible.
For now, I decided to spread the remaining liabilities by sailing the minesweepers SE down the Omani coast in pairs every half-hour. They have decent endurance and would be in position to screen the tankers if I am ever in a position to use the Special Option which moves them instantly to the Gulf approaches. The low-endurance US patrol boats and Omani/Emirati PGMs had to be left in-place.
10:00Z: The third pair of F-14s arrived and downed three more Floggers.
11:00Z: The fourth pair of F-14s (with four Phoenixes each) bagged another three Floggers.
12:00Z: It was tempting to go ahead and mount a big SEAD strike on Bandar Abbas but there were still too many fighters over the Straits, so another wave of Phoenix F-14 attacks was called-for first.
15:00Z: The F-14s returned but the first pair scored no kills whatsoever. The second pair didn’t do much better but downed a Flogger and (by accident) a Phantom.
16:00Z: The third pair of Tomcats managed two more Floggers. Maybe 6-12 left.
17:00Z: Out of patience, I launched the SEAD strike. Four Hornets, 6 Intruders, two Phoenix Tomcats (loaded heavy) and two Prowlers would rendezvous with three tankers over Oman, then proceed to the Straits, where they would be joined by more HARM-bearing planes from Abu Dhabi. A couple of Tomahawks were launched at the Guideline site to encourage the SAMs to light-up. The strike won’t eliminate the SAMs, but the next one or the one after that might, assuming I don’t run out of ARMs first.
18:00Z: Day One ended with the score at a parlous -334VP. So far, we’ve lost a CVH, 2 destroyers, two frigates, a PGM, a fighter and eight choppers. Enemy losses stand at an SSGN, SSN, AMC, 21 fighters, 20 attack planes and two recon Badgers.
It’s been frustrating. Most of the trouble has been down to bugs which are none of Bart’s doing but the scoring system, in particular, needs looking-at. So far, I’ve only been able to score for Soviet (not Iranian) aircraft and the lack of VP for the Oscar and Victor was unbelievable. Perhaps I can score for destroying SAM sites or SSMs, possibly for getting ships (including tankers) into or through the Straits. Fact is, I don’t know.
Anyway, I’ll take a shortish break, then soldier-on without much hope into Day Two. Neutralising the defences around the Straits is not entirely out of the question, though it would only take the MiG-29s and F-14s at Shiraz replacing the Floggers to make it impossible. Clearing the minefield is almost certainly not going to happen, which would mean huge VP losses should any tankers attempt to pass the narrows. We’ll see...
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
I can confirm the problem with the scoring system.
I have opened the editor and tried to see what's going on but could no find the root issue. Events and triggers seem ok.
Now the weird thing is that I have deleted all the logic regarding "Iranian AC Destroyed" and have recreated it "exactly as it was" (as far as I can see) and now I'm scoring when an Iranian AC is destroyed... My experience with triggers and event it's limited so I may have overlooked the root issue...
I have opened the editor and tried to see what's going on but could no find the root issue. Events and triggers seem ok.
Now the weird thing is that I have deleted all the logic regarding "Iranian AC Destroyed" and have recreated it "exactly as it was" (as far as I can see) and now I'm scoring when an Iranian AC is destroyed... My experience with triggers and event it's limited so I may have overlooked the root issue...
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
Acknowledge all and will revamp the scoring system. The - trigger not working - delete trigger - rebuild exact same trigger - issue has happened to me before and I don't know why
The Tripoli has survived in tests more times than not, it may be an evolution of the game which made her more vulnerable, but I think you made the right choice by taking the least of three bad options. Story line is strategic imperatives are pushing for the straits to be opened so risks are being taken. TG Elliot was another option, keeping it on its original path would put it in good position to protect the LPH and minesweepers. The Carrier, especially with CG-56 added has adequate - if not ideal air defences and with USS Marrill it has good ASW defence. If the CV gets jumped with only CG-33 available - it is in trouble. USS Texas on warp drive will make a difference before the CV gets into a high threat situation (well, except for the Oscar ambush that is)
The Oscar was indeed waiting for the carrier. TG Elliot got unlucky and was significantly overmatched.
Thanks for the AAR so far.
B
The Tripoli has survived in tests more times than not, it may be an evolution of the game which made her more vulnerable, but I think you made the right choice by taking the least of three bad options. Story line is strategic imperatives are pushing for the straits to be opened so risks are being taken. TG Elliot was another option, keeping it on its original path would put it in good position to protect the LPH and minesweepers. The Carrier, especially with CG-56 added has adequate - if not ideal air defences and with USS Marrill it has good ASW defence. If the CV gets jumped with only CG-33 available - it is in trouble. USS Texas on warp drive will make a difference before the CV gets into a high threat situation (well, except for the Oscar ambush that is)
The Oscar was indeed waiting for the carrier. TG Elliot got unlucky and was significantly overmatched.
Thanks for the AAR so far.
B
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And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
Hear what you say but, regarding TG Elliot, I was worried about Fencer and Long Range Aviation strikes, which they would have had no more defence against than with the Oscar. I still am. Pulling them back was an attempt to get them out of effective range but I underestimated the numbers of Mirages at Char Bahar and, as you say, they were unlucky that the Victor tipped-off the Oscar before I sank it. It was also a very close thing that the third Shipwreck salvo locked-onto Peterson - it very nearly didn't.
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
Day 2 (18:00Z 19/2/94 to 18:00Z 20/2/94)
18:00Z: USS Texas caught-up with TG Saratoga.
The SEAD strike went very well – too well!. It transpired that the problem affecting the Patriots also rendered the enemy Grumble SA-10b useless, as it has a similar guidance system, so the Soviets fired 58 of the missiles and none locked-onto an incoming HARM. As a result, all four Grumble batteries were disabled and a couple of Geckoes and a Styx SSM battery were destroyed. None of this scored any points but it made the scenario a bit less impossible. The Development Team has since traced the cause of this bug and a fix is promised for v1.06.1328.15.
19:00Z: The strike made its way home, aware of the continued threat from F-4s at Char Bahar. Covering Tomcats downed a couple of Bandar Abbas Phantoms in the process. I decided to do something about Char Bahar, refuelled the escorts and used them to knock down two patrolling F-4s.
I found that setting tankers to ‘Refuelling Not Allowed’ on the Doctrine window stops them moving towards clients most of the time.
20:00Z: Our F-14s downed another pair of Phantoms and an Orion near Char Bahar. The latter actually scored 3VP as a ‘high-value aircraft’.
Meanwhile, the Iranians mounted a Scud attack on Kuwait, predictably destroying the dock at Mohammad al Ahmad and the RHIBs and ROVs there – at least this cost no VP. Needless to say, the four protecting Patriot batteries were utterly useless. Note that the airfields in Kuwait are of the Single Unit variety and were probably not attacked for this reason.
An Aries took a close look at the Iranian shipping off their side of the Gulf of Oman and found a Kaman PGM off the town of Zarabad. We soon found three more.
21:00Z: An F-16 from Abu Dhabi penetrated Iranian airspace and downed a second Orion. So far, they have not replaced it, which has removed the threat of sneak attacks with Harpoons from this quarter.
As a small strike moved to deal with the Kamans, two F-4s sortied from Char Bahar but were dealt-with by the escorting F-14s. Stocks of Phoenixes were now running very low.
22:00Z: The strike on the Kamans sank all four without scoring any VP. Another Phantom tried to interfere and, without Phoenixes, the two escorts had to play tag with it to exhaust its missiles before closing and killing it with Sparrows.
Two F-14s killed a couple of Floggers near the Straits, the second with great difficulty and help from the Abu Dhabi Falcons, who bounced it when it went RTB.
23:00Z: Two Hornets attacked the shipping in the Straits with AGM-84s, hitting the AMCs Tudeh and Bakhtiar, which used Grouse MANPADs in defence. The Tudeh later sank.
20/2/94 00:00Z: One of our last remaining Phoenix sorties nailed two F-4s and two Sea Kings (with Sparrows) over the Straits. Another completely missed two Floggers, partly because they were flying low for some reason (responding to a distress call from the choppers?).
TG Wabash got within confirmation message range of the Saratoga, leaving me wondering how the ammo transfer was supposed to work.
01:00Z: The Floggers, as usual, chased me all the way to Muscat. One then switched base to Char Bahar but the other was ambushed and shot down by an F-16 on the way back to Bandar Abbas.
An Emirati Mirage attacked the swarm of light craft SW of the Straits with bombs, sinking three Toraghs and damaging another after coming off the default Weapons Hold against Surface targets!. There was evidence that Iranian vessels were getting damaged (though not sunk) by their own mines. Two Iranian MiG-29s chased the Mirage back to Al Dhafra before being dissuaded by the Patriots – they didn’t know that the things couldn’t hit them…
02:00Z: A second Mirage got two Toraghs but missed a minelayer, then a third sank another Toragh and damaged the minelayer.
Two F-14s tackled what looked like a single F-4 over the Straits but two more, accompanied by a pair of Floggers, took-off to reinforce it. All four of our Phoenixes missed and we had to beat a hasty retreat.
03:00Z: A Mirage sank four more Toraghs.
The Floggers pursued the F-14s far over the Gulf of Oman before finally going RTB. Two F-16s were waiting for them but it turned-out that the Russians were still able to fight. Another game of tag ensued before I eventually managed to exhaust the enemy fighters’ endurance, then get behind them and take them down at copious expenditure of ammo.
04:00Z: A second SEAD strike on Bandar Abbas did severe damage to enemy SAM and SSM batteries, taking out all of the remaining Styxes, not that it scored anything. So far, we had not detected any Iranian Seersucker SSMs. The escorting F-14 bagged a Phantom and a Sea King.
While this was going on, a Hawkeye found a second Iranian AMC in the Arabian Sea, so a pair of Vikings Harpooned but failed to sink it.
05:00Z: A Tomahawk strike hit Bandar Abbas airport, destroying 14 MiG-21s on the ground but not hitting any Fencers or fighters. An uncertain amount of damage was done to both runways.
Hornets with AGM-84s and Walleyes sank the AMC Bakhtiar and the Kaman PGM Khanjar while severely damaging the AMC Pahlavi.
06:00Z: An Intruder sank the Gearing-class DD Babr with Walleyes for a mighty 2VP. Another then sank the Iranians’ other Gearing (the Palang) but the AMC Foroughi fought-off a third attack.
07:00Z: A Viking finished-off the crippled oceanic AMC if, indeed, it was such. It appeared to have no MANPADs and might just have been a merchantman but it was definitely Iranian and we weren’t taking any chances.
Super Pumas from Minhad (Dubai) hit the Pahlavi and Foroughi with Exocets.
09:00Z: Another Super Puma of the Emirati Air Force sank the enemy’s last Kaman (the Tabarzin) and scored another hit on the Foroughi. Two Hornets then finished-off the Pahlavi and reported that the Foroughi had foundered as well. If so, the Iranian Navy was down to light vessels and subs unless there were more AMCs on the open ocean.
10:00Z: A U-2 launched from Abu Dhabi, confident that enemy Phantoms and MiG-29s could not engage it at its 85k’ maximum altitude. It soon found that there were three Mirage and eight Phantom attack planes at Jask airport on the Iranian side of the funnel of the Gulf of Oman. The latter had probably not interfered with our earlier operations because they were on Attack loadouts.
USS Buffalo was rising to hose these down with her remaining TLAMs when, with amazing timing, she detected a submarine contact. Although she’d been moving at Creep in deep water, the Kilo had gotten altogether too close for comfort. Buffalo loosed a torpedo and fled at Flank as one of Tripoli’s orphan Seahawks raced over from Said ibn Sultan in Oman. Fortunately, the Iranian Nuh reacted slowly and was struck but not killed by the Mk48. The AI had Buffalo fire twice more and this did the trick, surprisingly scoring 25VP.
Buffalo’s five TLAMs took-out six of the Phantoms, but the other aircraft were spared by malfunctioning ordnance. USS Texas fired a couple of Tomahawks to compensate.
An Emirati Super Puma sank a minelayer and a Delvar light freighter with Exocets, scoring nothing.
The U-2 found a Seersucker battery on the shoreline just NE of Hormuz Island and also reported that there were still 4 Floggers and a dozen MiG-21s at Bandar Abbas, where the main runway was heavily- and the secondary runway lightly-damaged. It appeared that any Fencers were back at Shiraz, perhaps primed to attack the loaded tankers should they try to make a run for the Straits later. Any strike by these could be heavily-escorted by MiG-29s and F-14s and it seemed wise to leave the ships right where they were all game unless there was a major shift in the balance of power.
11:00Z: The U-2 checked-out Abu Musa Island, where the damaged runway precluded the use of enemy aircraft and there were AA batteries but no SAMs, SSMs or docked ships. There was nothing major on Kish Island, either, so it seemed likely that there was just one Seersucker battery.
A Mirage took-out three more Toraghs but it would take all year to cull the swarm at this rate.
Texas’s TLAMs got the remaining Phantoms at Jask but the Mirages were again saved by a malfunction. Two TLAMs fired at the Seersucker were stopped by defending Geckoes.
12:00Z: Another TLAM from Texas finally removed the Mirages at Jask and, hopefully, neutralised that base.
SEAD F-16s from Abu Dhabi knocked-out the Geckoes around the Seersucker, so Texas tried again. The Falcons also took down a couple of radars but Al Dhafra was now very low on HARMs.
An Emirati Mirage tried bombing the swarm but was driven-off by Phantoms.
Despite two F-4s lifting-off from Bandar Abbas at just the wrong moment, Texas destroyed the Seersucker site with her TLAMs. This scored 5VP and it seemed that the Iranians had, indeed, only possessed the one battery.
14:00Z: A Mirage sank a couple of Toraghs and was then chased home by a Phantom. This time, I launched an F-16, which downed the Iranian as he RTB’d. Bandar Abbas has at least four Phantoms left.
Our last two TLAMs were fired at the tarmac spaces with the MiG-21 attack planes at Bandar Abbas but there were still enough SAMs there to stop them.
15:00Z: With Mirage sorties suspended due to nightfall, a former SEAD F-16 used Maverick IR munitions to dispose of another pair of Toraghs but it seemed wasteful and pointless. The attack had to be made as the plane dived to avoid boresight issues.
17:00Z: I about-turned the minesweepers in three groups of four and sent them back NW towards Said ibn Sultan at Cruise. Saratoga and her consorts were, by now, heading towards the Gulf at Cruise but, after 17 hours of waiting, had still received no supplies from Wabash.
An Orion, patrolling the upper Gulf of Oman, found and sank the Soviet Kilo B402 off Jask for 25VP.
By the end of Day 2, the score stood at -215. If I’d had all the points I should have scored, it would be a lot closer but I’d still be losing. Victory seems to depend on getting tankers through the Straits.
Our losses so far are a CVH, 2 DD, 2 FFG, a PGM, a fighter, 8 choppers, 10 ROVs, 2 RHIBs and 2 ground facilities.
The enemy have lost an SSGN, SSN, 2 SSK, 2 DD, 6 PGM, 6 AMCs, a minelayer, 20 light vessels, 39 fighters, 45 attack planes, 4 recon planes/MPA, 3 choppers, 16 SSMs and 45 other ground elements.
Overall, the day has seen us inflict significant losses on the enemy while incurring hardly any ourselves. At sea, the USSR and Iran are down to maybe one SSK (probably inside the Gulf) and lots of light craft. All of their SSM batteries around the Straits have been eliminated and, thanks in no small part to the Patriot/Grumble bug, their SAMs are no longer a serious problem. Most of the attack planes at Bandar Abbas and along the coast of the Gulf of Oman have also been destroyed and the fighters at these bases reduced to small numbers.
However, there are still numerous Fencers and maybe long-ranged bombers to contend with, the remaining fighters around Shiraz and the Gulf proper are superior to those encountered so far and the swarm of small craft is going to be very difficult to sweep from the Straits, owing to their sheer numbers.
Clearing the minefields looks close to impossible at this juncture, especially as we have just one minesweeping chopper left. Unless I can do this, I probably can’t win, as the mines will inevitably damage numerous merchantmen once they start moving under AI control, costing piles of points. Minefields are an unavoidable feature of any scenario set in this theatre but minesweeping isn’t the game’s strongest feature and can be extremely frustrating.
Worst of all, we have received no re-supply from the Wabash and it looks like this is down to another non-functioning trigger in the scenario. Without missile reloads, it will not be possible to maintain air superiority over the Straits as, with our AMRAAMs limited to a 2nm effective range, we really need the Phoenixes on the supply ship.
I’ll wait to hear what Bart has to say but I have my doubts as to whether it is worth persevering with the remaining three days of the scenario under these circumstances. The bugs have distorted it enough that any final score will be essentially meaningless, anyway.
18:00Z: USS Texas caught-up with TG Saratoga.
The SEAD strike went very well – too well!. It transpired that the problem affecting the Patriots also rendered the enemy Grumble SA-10b useless, as it has a similar guidance system, so the Soviets fired 58 of the missiles and none locked-onto an incoming HARM. As a result, all four Grumble batteries were disabled and a couple of Geckoes and a Styx SSM battery were destroyed. None of this scored any points but it made the scenario a bit less impossible. The Development Team has since traced the cause of this bug and a fix is promised for v1.06.1328.15.
19:00Z: The strike made its way home, aware of the continued threat from F-4s at Char Bahar. Covering Tomcats downed a couple of Bandar Abbas Phantoms in the process. I decided to do something about Char Bahar, refuelled the escorts and used them to knock down two patrolling F-4s.
I found that setting tankers to ‘Refuelling Not Allowed’ on the Doctrine window stops them moving towards clients most of the time.
20:00Z: Our F-14s downed another pair of Phantoms and an Orion near Char Bahar. The latter actually scored 3VP as a ‘high-value aircraft’.
Meanwhile, the Iranians mounted a Scud attack on Kuwait, predictably destroying the dock at Mohammad al Ahmad and the RHIBs and ROVs there – at least this cost no VP. Needless to say, the four protecting Patriot batteries were utterly useless. Note that the airfields in Kuwait are of the Single Unit variety and were probably not attacked for this reason.
An Aries took a close look at the Iranian shipping off their side of the Gulf of Oman and found a Kaman PGM off the town of Zarabad. We soon found three more.
21:00Z: An F-16 from Abu Dhabi penetrated Iranian airspace and downed a second Orion. So far, they have not replaced it, which has removed the threat of sneak attacks with Harpoons from this quarter.
As a small strike moved to deal with the Kamans, two F-4s sortied from Char Bahar but were dealt-with by the escorting F-14s. Stocks of Phoenixes were now running very low.
22:00Z: The strike on the Kamans sank all four without scoring any VP. Another Phantom tried to interfere and, without Phoenixes, the two escorts had to play tag with it to exhaust its missiles before closing and killing it with Sparrows.
Two F-14s killed a couple of Floggers near the Straits, the second with great difficulty and help from the Abu Dhabi Falcons, who bounced it when it went RTB.
23:00Z: Two Hornets attacked the shipping in the Straits with AGM-84s, hitting the AMCs Tudeh and Bakhtiar, which used Grouse MANPADs in defence. The Tudeh later sank.
20/2/94 00:00Z: One of our last remaining Phoenix sorties nailed two F-4s and two Sea Kings (with Sparrows) over the Straits. Another completely missed two Floggers, partly because they were flying low for some reason (responding to a distress call from the choppers?).
TG Wabash got within confirmation message range of the Saratoga, leaving me wondering how the ammo transfer was supposed to work.
01:00Z: The Floggers, as usual, chased me all the way to Muscat. One then switched base to Char Bahar but the other was ambushed and shot down by an F-16 on the way back to Bandar Abbas.
An Emirati Mirage attacked the swarm of light craft SW of the Straits with bombs, sinking three Toraghs and damaging another after coming off the default Weapons Hold against Surface targets!. There was evidence that Iranian vessels were getting damaged (though not sunk) by their own mines. Two Iranian MiG-29s chased the Mirage back to Al Dhafra before being dissuaded by the Patriots – they didn’t know that the things couldn’t hit them…
02:00Z: A second Mirage got two Toraghs but missed a minelayer, then a third sank another Toragh and damaged the minelayer.
Two F-14s tackled what looked like a single F-4 over the Straits but two more, accompanied by a pair of Floggers, took-off to reinforce it. All four of our Phoenixes missed and we had to beat a hasty retreat.
03:00Z: A Mirage sank four more Toraghs.
The Floggers pursued the F-14s far over the Gulf of Oman before finally going RTB. Two F-16s were waiting for them but it turned-out that the Russians were still able to fight. Another game of tag ensued before I eventually managed to exhaust the enemy fighters’ endurance, then get behind them and take them down at copious expenditure of ammo.
04:00Z: A second SEAD strike on Bandar Abbas did severe damage to enemy SAM and SSM batteries, taking out all of the remaining Styxes, not that it scored anything. So far, we had not detected any Iranian Seersucker SSMs. The escorting F-14 bagged a Phantom and a Sea King.
While this was going on, a Hawkeye found a second Iranian AMC in the Arabian Sea, so a pair of Vikings Harpooned but failed to sink it.
05:00Z: A Tomahawk strike hit Bandar Abbas airport, destroying 14 MiG-21s on the ground but not hitting any Fencers or fighters. An uncertain amount of damage was done to both runways.
Hornets with AGM-84s and Walleyes sank the AMC Bakhtiar and the Kaman PGM Khanjar while severely damaging the AMC Pahlavi.
06:00Z: An Intruder sank the Gearing-class DD Babr with Walleyes for a mighty 2VP. Another then sank the Iranians’ other Gearing (the Palang) but the AMC Foroughi fought-off a third attack.
07:00Z: A Viking finished-off the crippled oceanic AMC if, indeed, it was such. It appeared to have no MANPADs and might just have been a merchantman but it was definitely Iranian and we weren’t taking any chances.
Super Pumas from Minhad (Dubai) hit the Pahlavi and Foroughi with Exocets.
09:00Z: Another Super Puma of the Emirati Air Force sank the enemy’s last Kaman (the Tabarzin) and scored another hit on the Foroughi. Two Hornets then finished-off the Pahlavi and reported that the Foroughi had foundered as well. If so, the Iranian Navy was down to light vessels and subs unless there were more AMCs on the open ocean.
10:00Z: A U-2 launched from Abu Dhabi, confident that enemy Phantoms and MiG-29s could not engage it at its 85k’ maximum altitude. It soon found that there were three Mirage and eight Phantom attack planes at Jask airport on the Iranian side of the funnel of the Gulf of Oman. The latter had probably not interfered with our earlier operations because they were on Attack loadouts.
USS Buffalo was rising to hose these down with her remaining TLAMs when, with amazing timing, she detected a submarine contact. Although she’d been moving at Creep in deep water, the Kilo had gotten altogether too close for comfort. Buffalo loosed a torpedo and fled at Flank as one of Tripoli’s orphan Seahawks raced over from Said ibn Sultan in Oman. Fortunately, the Iranian Nuh reacted slowly and was struck but not killed by the Mk48. The AI had Buffalo fire twice more and this did the trick, surprisingly scoring 25VP.
Buffalo’s five TLAMs took-out six of the Phantoms, but the other aircraft were spared by malfunctioning ordnance. USS Texas fired a couple of Tomahawks to compensate.
An Emirati Super Puma sank a minelayer and a Delvar light freighter with Exocets, scoring nothing.
The U-2 found a Seersucker battery on the shoreline just NE of Hormuz Island and also reported that there were still 4 Floggers and a dozen MiG-21s at Bandar Abbas, where the main runway was heavily- and the secondary runway lightly-damaged. It appeared that any Fencers were back at Shiraz, perhaps primed to attack the loaded tankers should they try to make a run for the Straits later. Any strike by these could be heavily-escorted by MiG-29s and F-14s and it seemed wise to leave the ships right where they were all game unless there was a major shift in the balance of power.
11:00Z: The U-2 checked-out Abu Musa Island, where the damaged runway precluded the use of enemy aircraft and there were AA batteries but no SAMs, SSMs or docked ships. There was nothing major on Kish Island, either, so it seemed likely that there was just one Seersucker battery.
A Mirage took-out three more Toraghs but it would take all year to cull the swarm at this rate.
Texas’s TLAMs got the remaining Phantoms at Jask but the Mirages were again saved by a malfunction. Two TLAMs fired at the Seersucker were stopped by defending Geckoes.
12:00Z: Another TLAM from Texas finally removed the Mirages at Jask and, hopefully, neutralised that base.
SEAD F-16s from Abu Dhabi knocked-out the Geckoes around the Seersucker, so Texas tried again. The Falcons also took down a couple of radars but Al Dhafra was now very low on HARMs.
An Emirati Mirage tried bombing the swarm but was driven-off by Phantoms.
Despite two F-4s lifting-off from Bandar Abbas at just the wrong moment, Texas destroyed the Seersucker site with her TLAMs. This scored 5VP and it seemed that the Iranians had, indeed, only possessed the one battery.
14:00Z: A Mirage sank a couple of Toraghs and was then chased home by a Phantom. This time, I launched an F-16, which downed the Iranian as he RTB’d. Bandar Abbas has at least four Phantoms left.
Our last two TLAMs were fired at the tarmac spaces with the MiG-21 attack planes at Bandar Abbas but there were still enough SAMs there to stop them.
15:00Z: With Mirage sorties suspended due to nightfall, a former SEAD F-16 used Maverick IR munitions to dispose of another pair of Toraghs but it seemed wasteful and pointless. The attack had to be made as the plane dived to avoid boresight issues.
17:00Z: I about-turned the minesweepers in three groups of four and sent them back NW towards Said ibn Sultan at Cruise. Saratoga and her consorts were, by now, heading towards the Gulf at Cruise but, after 17 hours of waiting, had still received no supplies from Wabash.
An Orion, patrolling the upper Gulf of Oman, found and sank the Soviet Kilo B402 off Jask for 25VP.
By the end of Day 2, the score stood at -215. If I’d had all the points I should have scored, it would be a lot closer but I’d still be losing. Victory seems to depend on getting tankers through the Straits.
Our losses so far are a CVH, 2 DD, 2 FFG, a PGM, a fighter, 8 choppers, 10 ROVs, 2 RHIBs and 2 ground facilities.
The enemy have lost an SSGN, SSN, 2 SSK, 2 DD, 6 PGM, 6 AMCs, a minelayer, 20 light vessels, 39 fighters, 45 attack planes, 4 recon planes/MPA, 3 choppers, 16 SSMs and 45 other ground elements.
Overall, the day has seen us inflict significant losses on the enemy while incurring hardly any ourselves. At sea, the USSR and Iran are down to maybe one SSK (probably inside the Gulf) and lots of light craft. All of their SSM batteries around the Straits have been eliminated and, thanks in no small part to the Patriot/Grumble bug, their SAMs are no longer a serious problem. Most of the attack planes at Bandar Abbas and along the coast of the Gulf of Oman have also been destroyed and the fighters at these bases reduced to small numbers.
However, there are still numerous Fencers and maybe long-ranged bombers to contend with, the remaining fighters around Shiraz and the Gulf proper are superior to those encountered so far and the swarm of small craft is going to be very difficult to sweep from the Straits, owing to their sheer numbers.
Clearing the minefields looks close to impossible at this juncture, especially as we have just one minesweeping chopper left. Unless I can do this, I probably can’t win, as the mines will inevitably damage numerous merchantmen once they start moving under AI control, costing piles of points. Minefields are an unavoidable feature of any scenario set in this theatre but minesweeping isn’t the game’s strongest feature and can be extremely frustrating.
Worst of all, we have received no re-supply from the Wabash and it looks like this is down to another non-functioning trigger in the scenario. Without missile reloads, it will not be possible to maintain air superiority over the Straits as, with our AMRAAMs limited to a 2nm effective range, we really need the Phoenixes on the supply ship.
I’ll wait to hear what Bart has to say but I have my doubts as to whether it is worth persevering with the remaining three days of the scenario under these circumstances. The bugs have distorted it enough that any final score will be essentially meaningless, anyway.
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
Hay Vince
You need to conduct a replen with the Wabash and the carrier to restock the carriers magazines.
There are two key things pushing NATO towards victory in this scenario: 1) opening the straits and 2) Saudi activation.
I'll need to re-examine the VP structure a little but I was trying to steer away from a pure kill=VP system and working toward an event based win. However I note that getting the Saudi's to activate gives you more assets but no VP, that should change. You also get 5 points for every merchant that enters the straits so that will bring in about 200 (assuming that trigger is working). But you should get 2 VP for every Iranian AC destroyed (3 for Sov) (that one is not working) plus the 3 point subsidy for HVUs and 5 for every major SAM and SSM destroyed (not working either I think). You only get 2 points for Iranian DDs as they really aren't a threat, but it is a boost to Saudi activation. The subs are different and that is why the 25pt +Saudi activation bonus. There is also an event missing (my bad) where Saudi activation gets a big boost when the carrier enters the gulf (risk vs reward)
There are two other major events in the scenario, one in your control and one not so much. The first is the Ammo convoy to Al Dafra, this will give an ammo unload into that base and a C-130 to ship munitions north (cannot remember all the details) and the other is an Indo/Pac conflict which has a separate set of triggers some of which you can (and should) avoid - this has story implications but not much directly involved in the scenario.
There are a couple key strategic drivers here and I wanted to put the player in a difficult situation - to win, more operational and tactical risk must be taken.
Hope that helps.
Bart
You need to conduct a replen with the Wabash and the carrier to restock the carriers magazines.
There are two key things pushing NATO towards victory in this scenario: 1) opening the straits and 2) Saudi activation.
I'll need to re-examine the VP structure a little but I was trying to steer away from a pure kill=VP system and working toward an event based win. However I note that getting the Saudi's to activate gives you more assets but no VP, that should change. You also get 5 points for every merchant that enters the straits so that will bring in about 200 (assuming that trigger is working). But you should get 2 VP for every Iranian AC destroyed (3 for Sov) (that one is not working) plus the 3 point subsidy for HVUs and 5 for every major SAM and SSM destroyed (not working either I think). You only get 2 points for Iranian DDs as they really aren't a threat, but it is a boost to Saudi activation. The subs are different and that is why the 25pt +Saudi activation bonus. There is also an event missing (my bad) where Saudi activation gets a big boost when the carrier enters the gulf (risk vs reward)
There are two other major events in the scenario, one in your control and one not so much. The first is the Ammo convoy to Al Dafra, this will give an ammo unload into that base and a C-130 to ship munitions north (cannot remember all the details) and the other is an Indo/Pac conflict which has a separate set of triggers some of which you can (and should) avoid - this has story implications but not much directly involved in the scenario.
There are a couple key strategic drivers here and I wanted to put the player in a difficult situation - to win, more operational and tactical risk must be taken.
Hope that helps.
Bart
Check out our novel, Northern Fury: H-Hour!: http://northernfury.us/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
Thanks, Bart. A couple of questions:
- I tried to use the UNREP option to move the supplies from Wabash to Saratoga but nothing happened and it only seemed to relate to ship-to-ship refuelling, anyway. Did I miss something here?. How long should the transfer take?. Wabash is trailing a little behind Saratoga now but there is still time for me to wait for her to catch-up.
- Where exactly does Austral Rainbow need to get to in order to offload her supplies?. There's an Oman marker on the map but this is inland at the tip of the Ras al Khaimah peninsula and is also a very exposed location. Said ibn Sultan seemed the logical place and is pretty safe at the moment, so that's where the ship is headed right now.
- I'm assuming that using the Special Option to move the tankers closer to the Straits will basically 'teleport' them to the co-ordinates stated (with or without Aliseo). Is this correct?.
If you think that it would be useful from your point-of-view, I will play on. Frankly, I do not believe that I can clear the minefield, even if the Fencers don't attack the inbound tankers and I can clear the swarm. I am therefore likely to lose many more points for ships (moving under AI control) damaged by mines than I will gain for getting them into the Straits.
Regardless, there's not much point in my taking the scoring seriously when so many triggers aren't working, so I will be treating it as a playtest only.
- I tried to use the UNREP option to move the supplies from Wabash to Saratoga but nothing happened and it only seemed to relate to ship-to-ship refuelling, anyway. Did I miss something here?. How long should the transfer take?. Wabash is trailing a little behind Saratoga now but there is still time for me to wait for her to catch-up.
- Where exactly does Austral Rainbow need to get to in order to offload her supplies?. There's an Oman marker on the map but this is inland at the tip of the Ras al Khaimah peninsula and is also a very exposed location. Said ibn Sultan seemed the logical place and is pretty safe at the moment, so that's where the ship is headed right now.
- I'm assuming that using the Special Option to move the tankers closer to the Straits will basically 'teleport' them to the co-ordinates stated (with or without Aliseo). Is this correct?.
If you think that it would be useful from your point-of-view, I will play on. Frankly, I do not believe that I can clear the minefield, even if the Fencers don't attack the inbound tankers and I can clear the swarm. I am therefore likely to lose many more points for ships (moving under AI control) damaged by mines than I will gain for getting them into the Straits.
Regardless, there's not much point in my taking the scoring seriously when so many triggers aren't working, so I will be treating it as a playtest only.
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
It has been a long time since I've used this function so am not really sure. I remember that ammo transfer should be automatic to fill depleted magazines but am not really sure these days.fitzpatv wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:47 am Thanks, Bart. A couple of questions:
- I tried to use the UNREP option to move the supplies from Wabash to Saratoga but nothing happened and it only seemed to relate to ship-to-ship refuelling, anyway. Did I miss something here?. How long should the transfer take?. Wabash is trailing a little behind Saratoga now but there is still time for me to wait for her to catch-up.
Said ibn Sultan is the right spot. It needs to spend 16 hrs there and the event should trigger. You should get 400 Aim-9M, 400 Aim-120, 200 Aim-7 and an AC-130 which can move some north to Sheik Isa Bahrain or Al Jaber Kuwaitfitzpatv wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:47 am - Where exactly does Austral Rainbow need to get to in order to offload her supplies?. There's an Oman marker on the map but this is inland at the tip of the Ras al Khaimah peninsula and is also a very exposed location. Said ibn Sultan seemed the logical place and is pretty safe at the moment, so that's where the ship is headed right now.
No it will move the RPs for their patrol box and they will move to the location, you need to do this sometime on day 2 or early day 3 of the scenario to get them in position in the Gulf of Oman and then when you declare the striates clear the RPs move again into the PGfitzpatv wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:47 am - I'm assuming that using the Special Option to move the tankers closer to the Straits will basically 'teleport' them to the co-ordinates stated (with or without Aliseo). Is this correct?.
It may not be worth your frustration. I have enough to get back in and rebuild this scenario and do some more testing. I'll make it more clear in the brief that there is a lot of high end pressure to get the tankers moving to enable the overall war effort etc.fitzpatv wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:47 am If you think that it would be useful from your point-of-view, I will play on. Frankly, I do not believe that I can clear the minefield, even if the Fencers don't attack the inbound tankers and I can clear the swarm. I am therefore likely to lose many more points for ships (moving under AI control) damaged by mines than I will gain for getting them into the Straits.
Agree. Need to fix thatfitzpatv wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:47 am Regardless, there's not much point in my taking the scoring seriously when so many triggers aren't working, so I will be treating it as a playtest only.
Appreciate the report, it will help a lot in cleaning this scenario up.
Bart
Check out our novel, Northern Fury: H-Hour!: http://northernfury.us/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
Day 3 (20/2/94 18:00 to 21/2/94 18:00)
So I played Day 3, largely in order to satisfy myself about some aspects of the scenario.
20/2/94 18:00Z : I executed the Special Order to start moving the tankers towards the Gulf. A quick calculation showed that I had done this too late, as they won’t get there at their AI-determined 10 knots. This needs to be done on Day 2 latest – unfortunately, I’d assumed that the ships would be moved immediately.
Used my last available Phoenix to get rid of the last F-4 at Char Bahar, which was having an influence out of all proportion to its stature by threatening the flank of my strikes.
Hit a few more SAMs at Bandar Abbas with HARMs.
Began replenishing Saratoga from Wabash. Previously, I’d tried doing this via the UNREP option on the unit display, which doesn’t work, enabling refuelling only. You need to use Unit Orders: UNREP, Rearm. The carrier and the supply ship need to be within about a nautical mile of each other and preferably at Full Stop, which is fiddly to set-up. It then takes a while…
19:00Z: Had a message about escalation on the India-Pakistan front.
The Iranian SSK Taregh then appeared too close to HMS Coventry off the Saudi coast. The frigate ran and fired a torpedo while launching her ASW chopper and USS Gallery sent hers to help. Unfortunately, Coventry was unable to outrun the Taregh’s tinfish and was sunk – with yet another downed pilot in the Gulf of Guinea!. In the end, the Taregh joined her but it took a remarkable four torpedo hits to do the job. Shame about the frigate, but that was the submarine threat over with.
21:00Z: Slow going. As Saratoga slowly replenished, more Phoenixes were loaded onto Tomcats and the Abu Dhabi F-16s made a few more HARM strikes on Bandar Abbas.
21/2/94 01:00Z: A Pakistani submarine sank an Indian fishing boat, so we were blamed for it and fined 10VP, along with an unnecessarily sarcastic message. This happened four more times over the course of the day and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. Really, the scenario would have been better without the whole India-Pakistan situation. Quite apart from anything else, their units slow the game down.
The first two returning F-14s engaged a pair of Phantoms over the Straits, getting one hit in four shots. It never changes and I just had to laugh.
02:00Z: A second pair of Tomcats got another Phantom but missed a Fulcrum three times, including two spoofs. A third pair bagged a Phantom in four shots at 40-60% chances, then the fourth pair missed with all four shots at similar odds. This was more than I could accept and I replayed the last shot until I finally got the offending F-4. It took an unbelievable NINE reloads to do this but, of course, there is nothing wrong with the game’s random number generator, so it must be me (but I’m crazy to suggest that some people are luckier than others).
03:00Z: An F-16 attacked two Toraghs with IR Mavericks to no effect. The Log said that the missiles had missed the targets by 0nm. I tried again with another plane and the same thing happened – yet I’d successfully sunk some Toraghs with Mavericks since the last time I loaded an update. Inexplicable. All F-16s were laboriously reloaded with iron bombs.
04:00Z: Two Hornets attacked Bandar Abbas Airport with AGM-84s, destroying 6 Fishbeds and a presumably out-of-service Flogger. The U-2 reported that there were at least 6 Fishbeds and 3 Floggers left. In the event, another pair of F/A-18s took-out six of each. As the U-2 could see no more, I concluded, warily, that the aerial threat from the base was now negligible.
Austral Rainbow reached Salim ibn Sultan, scoring 25VP. Hopefully, the unload will complete around 20:45Z on 21/2/94.
05:00Z: A Hornet hit the Bandar Abbas naval dock, scoring 3VP and destroying the Iranians’ last minelayer and a small freighter. An Emirati Mirage then sank four Toraghs with bombs – at least they still worked. Strikes continued on the swarm for the rest of the day, gradually diminishing the problem. F-16s carry six bombs to the Mirage’s four, so they get the job done quicker. The enemy Zafar PCFs and Delvar freighters could fire back, so these were all culled from a safe distance by the Emirati Super Pumas with Exocets.
07:00Z: The F-14s returned to the fray, aiming to dislodge the Iranian Fulcrums from their closest CAP position W of the Straits. The first Tomcat managed a kill with its two Phoenixes but, in what was a recurring theme, the first shot missed, complicating the issue. It was always possible to loose the second Phoenix before cutting and running if one accepted the risk of the missile going blind. Better than losing a plane…
At 07:40, Saratoga finally completed her replenishment after 13.5 hours. I detached Wabash and John Ericsson with the FFG Hawes, sending them to shepherd the tankers as they plodded slowly N with Aliseo.
Meanwhile, an F-16 flew over Iran and needed four shots to take down a Badger J recon plane.
08:00Z: Despite my having clearly stated in WRA that the weapon was not to be used against helicopters, a Tomcat wasted both of its Phoenixes missing a Sea King while I was trying to engage the last Iranian F-4 at Bandar Abbas. It then needed both Sparrows to get the chopper before going RTB.
09:00Z: The Phantom pursued the F-14 far over the Gulf of Oman and could then, even after turning for base, go Afterburner on an intercepting F-16. This had to flee and call-in a Tomcat, which needed both Phoenixes to get the job done. Evens out, doesn’t it?!.
Meanwhile, another Fulcrum had turned-up at the Straits, so the other duty F-14 downed it – after routinely missing with its first shot.
10:00Z: By now, the minesweepers were getting close to the Straits, finding the odd stray mine in the funnel of the Gulf of Oman. I brought my remaining Sea Dragon mineclearing chopper into play and had it mop-up, then scout ahead. I’ve created a Minesweeping mission in the narrows but, such is the buggy state of minesweeping that I don’t trust the ships to do it. Chances are that they’ll head for the Gulf of Guinea instead, as in the Socotra scenarios.
An F-16 destroyed a Fencer E over Iran. Meanwhile, a Tomcat engaged another MiG-29 but botched its attack and had to flee. The Fulcrum went RTB, so the second F-14 could not follow-up.
11:00Z: A Tomcat disposed of the next MiG-29 – but only with its second shot, as usual.
12:00Z: For the first time in forever, a Tomcat hit a Fulcrum with its opening Phoenix!. I nearly fell off my chair!. This caused a lull in these engagements, as the Iranians now had fewer reserves to plug the gap.
13:00Z: An F-16 bagged another Fencer E.
14:00Z: The Tomcat that had scored the one-shot kill returned to normality by missing the next Fulcrum with its other Phoenix. All of this was at 40-60% odds, firing at 30nm.
16:00Z: More HARM and AGM-84 strikes hit some of the remaining SAMs at Bandar Abbas. During all of this, there was a crazy incident when a Hornet refused to drop to below 35k’ in order to fire and, trying to correct this, I found myself typing letters rather than numbers on the Throttle and Altitude window (repeatedly)!. Closing and re-opening it fixed the problem. An F-16 destroyed a Fencer F over Iran.
17:00Z: Another marauding F-16 shot down a Candid transport that the Iranians were using for some purpose, scoring 3VP.
Day 3 ended with the score on -170, for what it mattered. Saratoga should reach the area of the Straits in around 15 hours but whether she wants to risk the mines is a good question. I may have to send the minesweepers in and be damned, with the (readying) Sea Dragon, which has apparently cleared 15 so far, in support. The swarm is somewhat reduced but there are still a lot of them. There is probably enough time to get most or all of them with bombs.
So far, we’ve lost a CVH, 2 DD, 3 FFG, a PGM, a fighter, 9 choppers, 10 ROVs, 2 RHIBS and two land elements.
The Warsaw Pact has lost an SSGN, SSN, SSK, 30 fighters, 26 attack planes, 6 support aircraft, 49 SAMs, 12 SSMs and 2 radars.
Iran has lost 2 SSK, 6 AMC, 2 DD, 6 PGM, 2 minelayers, 87 small craft (many to its own mines), 26 fighters, 31 attack planes, 5 support aircraft, 4 choppers, 16 SAMs, 4 SSMs and 4 other land elements.
I don’t care what Pakistan or India have lost.
Because I don’t like leaving things unfinished, I may complete this, but am inclined to have a break and play another Chains of War bonus scenario (and a few other games) first. Reading the description for the next Indian Ocean scenario does not fill me with enthusiasm and I think I’d prefer to pause this series and switch to one of the other Fury modules, either the Mediterranean or back to Northern Fury.
So I played Day 3, largely in order to satisfy myself about some aspects of the scenario.
20/2/94 18:00Z : I executed the Special Order to start moving the tankers towards the Gulf. A quick calculation showed that I had done this too late, as they won’t get there at their AI-determined 10 knots. This needs to be done on Day 2 latest – unfortunately, I’d assumed that the ships would be moved immediately.
Used my last available Phoenix to get rid of the last F-4 at Char Bahar, which was having an influence out of all proportion to its stature by threatening the flank of my strikes.
Hit a few more SAMs at Bandar Abbas with HARMs.
Began replenishing Saratoga from Wabash. Previously, I’d tried doing this via the UNREP option on the unit display, which doesn’t work, enabling refuelling only. You need to use Unit Orders: UNREP, Rearm. The carrier and the supply ship need to be within about a nautical mile of each other and preferably at Full Stop, which is fiddly to set-up. It then takes a while…
19:00Z: Had a message about escalation on the India-Pakistan front.
The Iranian SSK Taregh then appeared too close to HMS Coventry off the Saudi coast. The frigate ran and fired a torpedo while launching her ASW chopper and USS Gallery sent hers to help. Unfortunately, Coventry was unable to outrun the Taregh’s tinfish and was sunk – with yet another downed pilot in the Gulf of Guinea!. In the end, the Taregh joined her but it took a remarkable four torpedo hits to do the job. Shame about the frigate, but that was the submarine threat over with.
21:00Z: Slow going. As Saratoga slowly replenished, more Phoenixes were loaded onto Tomcats and the Abu Dhabi F-16s made a few more HARM strikes on Bandar Abbas.
21/2/94 01:00Z: A Pakistani submarine sank an Indian fishing boat, so we were blamed for it and fined 10VP, along with an unnecessarily sarcastic message. This happened four more times over the course of the day and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. Really, the scenario would have been better without the whole India-Pakistan situation. Quite apart from anything else, their units slow the game down.
The first two returning F-14s engaged a pair of Phantoms over the Straits, getting one hit in four shots. It never changes and I just had to laugh.
02:00Z: A second pair of Tomcats got another Phantom but missed a Fulcrum three times, including two spoofs. A third pair bagged a Phantom in four shots at 40-60% chances, then the fourth pair missed with all four shots at similar odds. This was more than I could accept and I replayed the last shot until I finally got the offending F-4. It took an unbelievable NINE reloads to do this but, of course, there is nothing wrong with the game’s random number generator, so it must be me (but I’m crazy to suggest that some people are luckier than others).
03:00Z: An F-16 attacked two Toraghs with IR Mavericks to no effect. The Log said that the missiles had missed the targets by 0nm. I tried again with another plane and the same thing happened – yet I’d successfully sunk some Toraghs with Mavericks since the last time I loaded an update. Inexplicable. All F-16s were laboriously reloaded with iron bombs.
04:00Z: Two Hornets attacked Bandar Abbas Airport with AGM-84s, destroying 6 Fishbeds and a presumably out-of-service Flogger. The U-2 reported that there were at least 6 Fishbeds and 3 Floggers left. In the event, another pair of F/A-18s took-out six of each. As the U-2 could see no more, I concluded, warily, that the aerial threat from the base was now negligible.
Austral Rainbow reached Salim ibn Sultan, scoring 25VP. Hopefully, the unload will complete around 20:45Z on 21/2/94.
05:00Z: A Hornet hit the Bandar Abbas naval dock, scoring 3VP and destroying the Iranians’ last minelayer and a small freighter. An Emirati Mirage then sank four Toraghs with bombs – at least they still worked. Strikes continued on the swarm for the rest of the day, gradually diminishing the problem. F-16s carry six bombs to the Mirage’s four, so they get the job done quicker. The enemy Zafar PCFs and Delvar freighters could fire back, so these were all culled from a safe distance by the Emirati Super Pumas with Exocets.
07:00Z: The F-14s returned to the fray, aiming to dislodge the Iranian Fulcrums from their closest CAP position W of the Straits. The first Tomcat managed a kill with its two Phoenixes but, in what was a recurring theme, the first shot missed, complicating the issue. It was always possible to loose the second Phoenix before cutting and running if one accepted the risk of the missile going blind. Better than losing a plane…
At 07:40, Saratoga finally completed her replenishment after 13.5 hours. I detached Wabash and John Ericsson with the FFG Hawes, sending them to shepherd the tankers as they plodded slowly N with Aliseo.
Meanwhile, an F-16 flew over Iran and needed four shots to take down a Badger J recon plane.
08:00Z: Despite my having clearly stated in WRA that the weapon was not to be used against helicopters, a Tomcat wasted both of its Phoenixes missing a Sea King while I was trying to engage the last Iranian F-4 at Bandar Abbas. It then needed both Sparrows to get the chopper before going RTB.
09:00Z: The Phantom pursued the F-14 far over the Gulf of Oman and could then, even after turning for base, go Afterburner on an intercepting F-16. This had to flee and call-in a Tomcat, which needed both Phoenixes to get the job done. Evens out, doesn’t it?!.
Meanwhile, another Fulcrum had turned-up at the Straits, so the other duty F-14 downed it – after routinely missing with its first shot.
10:00Z: By now, the minesweepers were getting close to the Straits, finding the odd stray mine in the funnel of the Gulf of Oman. I brought my remaining Sea Dragon mineclearing chopper into play and had it mop-up, then scout ahead. I’ve created a Minesweeping mission in the narrows but, such is the buggy state of minesweeping that I don’t trust the ships to do it. Chances are that they’ll head for the Gulf of Guinea instead, as in the Socotra scenarios.
An F-16 destroyed a Fencer E over Iran. Meanwhile, a Tomcat engaged another MiG-29 but botched its attack and had to flee. The Fulcrum went RTB, so the second F-14 could not follow-up.
11:00Z: A Tomcat disposed of the next MiG-29 – but only with its second shot, as usual.
12:00Z: For the first time in forever, a Tomcat hit a Fulcrum with its opening Phoenix!. I nearly fell off my chair!. This caused a lull in these engagements, as the Iranians now had fewer reserves to plug the gap.
13:00Z: An F-16 bagged another Fencer E.
14:00Z: The Tomcat that had scored the one-shot kill returned to normality by missing the next Fulcrum with its other Phoenix. All of this was at 40-60% odds, firing at 30nm.
16:00Z: More HARM and AGM-84 strikes hit some of the remaining SAMs at Bandar Abbas. During all of this, there was a crazy incident when a Hornet refused to drop to below 35k’ in order to fire and, trying to correct this, I found myself typing letters rather than numbers on the Throttle and Altitude window (repeatedly)!. Closing and re-opening it fixed the problem. An F-16 destroyed a Fencer F over Iran.
17:00Z: Another marauding F-16 shot down a Candid transport that the Iranians were using for some purpose, scoring 3VP.
Day 3 ended with the score on -170, for what it mattered. Saratoga should reach the area of the Straits in around 15 hours but whether she wants to risk the mines is a good question. I may have to send the minesweepers in and be damned, with the (readying) Sea Dragon, which has apparently cleared 15 so far, in support. The swarm is somewhat reduced but there are still a lot of them. There is probably enough time to get most or all of them with bombs.
So far, we’ve lost a CVH, 2 DD, 3 FFG, a PGM, a fighter, 9 choppers, 10 ROVs, 2 RHIBS and two land elements.
The Warsaw Pact has lost an SSGN, SSN, SSK, 30 fighters, 26 attack planes, 6 support aircraft, 49 SAMs, 12 SSMs and 2 radars.
Iran has lost 2 SSK, 6 AMC, 2 DD, 6 PGM, 2 minelayers, 87 small craft (many to its own mines), 26 fighters, 31 attack planes, 5 support aircraft, 4 choppers, 16 SAMs, 4 SSMs and 4 other land elements.
I don’t care what Pakistan or India have lost.
Because I don’t like leaving things unfinished, I may complete this, but am inclined to have a break and play another Chains of War bonus scenario (and a few other games) first. Reading the description for the next Indian Ocean scenario does not fill me with enthusiasm and I think I’d prefer to pause this series and switch to one of the other Fury modules, either the Mediterranean or back to Northern Fury.
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
Day 4 (21/2/94 18:00Z to 22/2/94 18:00Z)
For anyone who’s still interested in this, I played through Day 4.
21/2/94 18:00Z: An F-16 and Emirati Mirage sank another 8 small craft. Meanwhile, an F-14 engaged a MiG-29, missed twice at evens chances and ran away.
19:00Z: Two F-16s reduced the swarm by another dozen, leaving 50+. Two more F-14s tackled the Fulcrum and finally got it at the sixth attempt, using a Sparrow. Seven successive misses at roughly evens beggars belief, but…
At 19:30, we were told that the Bab al Mandeb had been opened for traffic.
20:00Z: Prioritising those closest to the minesweepers, F-16s removed another dozen small craft.
At 20:41, the ammo convoy reached Al Dhafra, releasing the Hercules to take some of the A2A missiles to Kuwait (though it still needed another two hours to ready). No VP.
21:00Z: Two Falcons finished-off the Eastern half of the swarm. Most of the Western half were crippled by their own mines.
22:00Z: An F-16 intercepted a Fencer F over Iran, missed on 58%, suffered two spoofs on 12% and 10% and finally downed it with a Sidewinder on 90%.
23:00Z: HARM strikes neutralised the remaining Gadfly sites around Bandar Abbas, leaving some Gainfuls and Rapiers which were reluctant to turn-on their radars for me.
22/2/94 00:00Z: Further hits on SAMs and radars around the Straits, using AGM-84s.
01:00Z: We began bombing the Western half of the swarm, prioritising undamaged craft. The Hercules arrived in Kuwait, which prompted a message but no VP.
02:00Z: Dawn allowed more scope for strikes, freeing-up our Walleye Hornets and Intruders and Emirati Mirages, which can’t bomb at night. We whittled away the swarm, destroying some Toraghs under repair at Hengam dock and also wrecked a uranium plant, which was worth 3VP. After the obligatory spoof, an F-16 disposed of a Badger J over Iran.
03:00Z: An oil refinery was destroyed at Bandar Abbas, as were several SAM sites. It would seem that Iranian Gammon, Guideline and Gainful sites score 5VP each, though Soviet sites like Grumbles and Gadflies score nothing. I suppose the latter was payback for the bug affecting the Grumbles, to be fair.
04:00Z: The swarm was finally eradicated by strikes from Al Dhafra. Minesweeping was progressing tolerably well when my main asset, the surviving Sea Dragon, finally suffered the 1% chance (?) of being destroyed by a mine detonation. It was bound to happen and so, it would seem, was the downed pilot though, for once, we were able to mount a rescue and retrieve 3VP.
05:00Z: The Hercules hopped across from Ahmed al Jaber to Ali al Salem in Kuwait though, as it turned-out, this made no difference to anything. As so often, you have to find these things out by trial and error.
06:00Z: A last Toragh sortied from Abu Musa island and was promptly sunk by the Emiratis.
07:00Z: The remaining Gammon and Guideline sites and docks at Bandar Abbas were eliminated.
Predictably, despite best efforts, the cruiser Fox hit a stray mine well short of the narrows. This somehow destroyed her chopper despite there being no damage to the helipad and, guess what, I got a downed pilot in the Gulf of Guinea!. Meanwhile, our minesweepers continued to fuss around located mines, mostly without dealing with them, mission or not. USS Avenger’s ROV was especially useless. HMS Argyll also took light damage from another outlying mine. Basically, minesweeping just doesn’t work in CMO and I would plead with designers to either leave minefields out or abstract them in some way (exclusion zones, timers for clearing them given minesweepers in the vicinity?).
10:00Z: There was no option but to just plough through the minefields and brace for impact. We got through the first of two belts without too much trouble, though Saratoga hit two mines without taking significant damage (perhaps due to her huge DP value) and had to be desperately steered away from another as the AI equally desperately tried to sail her off course and over it.
12:00Z: With Saratoga through the Straits and no message or VP award, I felt I had nothing to lose by holding the press conference. As it turned-out, I did have something to lose – another 50VP!. I suppose the Saudis didn’t like the negative score… Playing this scenario feels like being in an abusive relationship at times.
All major SAMs (i.e. those that score VP) at Bandar Abbas were now destroyed.
We began aggressive patrols towards Shiraz with the F-14s. The first Fulcrum encountered was actually downed with the first Phoenix (on 56%). I almost felt guilty.
13:00Z: The two Tomcats then missed with all three shots at the next trio of MiG-29s. A second pair of F-14s took over and downed the Iranian fighters, though they had to resort to Sparrows to get the 50% kill ratio.
14:00Z: USS Fox was further damaged by mines as we hit a second belt, incurring flooding and fires. Nevertheless, her sacrifice allowed the rest of the task force to get through.
A small strike on Shiraz with the available aircraft didn’t achieve much in the face of numerous SAMs. A Grumble (still hindered by the bug) and a Gadfly were disabled and an empty hangar destroyed. This drew-out a full regiment of 24 Iranian Tomcats, which chased us all the way back to Saratoga. Our SAMs disposed of six of them (no VP, of course) and the others withdrew. A MiG-29 had sortied while this was going-on and was shot down by a US Tomcat.
15:00Z: Two F-14s engaged yet another pair of Fulcrums. We got the usual one hit with four Phoenixes at evens chances but risking closing to Sparrow range paid-off and the other MiG was downed.
16:00Z: By now, Fox had her damage under control and we were reaching deeper water. The best bet seemed to be to steer N of Abu Musa, use the escorts to beat hell out of it with guns on the way and then head for the Dubai area.
An F-14 got two more Fulcrums, using Sparrows after her Phoenixes missed.
18:00Z: By the close on Day 4, the score was -156. Losses came to a CVH, 2 DD, 3 FFG, a PGM, 10 ROVs, 2 RHIBs, a fighter, 11 choppers and two land elements.
The Warsaw Pact had lost an SSGN, SSN, SSK, 30 fighters, 26 attack planes, 8 support aircraft and 102 land elements, while Iran had lost 6 AMC, 2 SSK, 2 DD, 6 PGM, 2 minelayers, 160 small craft, 36 fighters, 31 attack planes, 4 support aircraft, 4 choppers and 79 land elements.
Bandar Abbas had been neutralised (apart from the mines) and the Saratoga CVBG was through to the open waters of the Gulf. It still seems crazy to authorise tankers to blunder through under AI control and risk the mines, while the enemy still have their Fencers and longer-ranged bombers with which to strike at them and 18 Tomcats and around a dozen Fulcrums with which to escort them.
There’s increasingly little point in playing Day 5 but, if someone so requests, I will play through it.
Otherwise, I’m holding-off playing the penultimate Chains of War scenario (Armed Diplomacy) until 1328.15 comes-out officially, as the Chinese Grumbles will be affected by the bug until this happens. I might play something smaller in the interim.
For anyone who’s still interested in this, I played through Day 4.
21/2/94 18:00Z: An F-16 and Emirati Mirage sank another 8 small craft. Meanwhile, an F-14 engaged a MiG-29, missed twice at evens chances and ran away.
19:00Z: Two F-16s reduced the swarm by another dozen, leaving 50+. Two more F-14s tackled the Fulcrum and finally got it at the sixth attempt, using a Sparrow. Seven successive misses at roughly evens beggars belief, but…
At 19:30, we were told that the Bab al Mandeb had been opened for traffic.
20:00Z: Prioritising those closest to the minesweepers, F-16s removed another dozen small craft.
At 20:41, the ammo convoy reached Al Dhafra, releasing the Hercules to take some of the A2A missiles to Kuwait (though it still needed another two hours to ready). No VP.
21:00Z: Two Falcons finished-off the Eastern half of the swarm. Most of the Western half were crippled by their own mines.
22:00Z: An F-16 intercepted a Fencer F over Iran, missed on 58%, suffered two spoofs on 12% and 10% and finally downed it with a Sidewinder on 90%.
23:00Z: HARM strikes neutralised the remaining Gadfly sites around Bandar Abbas, leaving some Gainfuls and Rapiers which were reluctant to turn-on their radars for me.
22/2/94 00:00Z: Further hits on SAMs and radars around the Straits, using AGM-84s.
01:00Z: We began bombing the Western half of the swarm, prioritising undamaged craft. The Hercules arrived in Kuwait, which prompted a message but no VP.
02:00Z: Dawn allowed more scope for strikes, freeing-up our Walleye Hornets and Intruders and Emirati Mirages, which can’t bomb at night. We whittled away the swarm, destroying some Toraghs under repair at Hengam dock and also wrecked a uranium plant, which was worth 3VP. After the obligatory spoof, an F-16 disposed of a Badger J over Iran.
03:00Z: An oil refinery was destroyed at Bandar Abbas, as were several SAM sites. It would seem that Iranian Gammon, Guideline and Gainful sites score 5VP each, though Soviet sites like Grumbles and Gadflies score nothing. I suppose the latter was payback for the bug affecting the Grumbles, to be fair.
04:00Z: The swarm was finally eradicated by strikes from Al Dhafra. Minesweeping was progressing tolerably well when my main asset, the surviving Sea Dragon, finally suffered the 1% chance (?) of being destroyed by a mine detonation. It was bound to happen and so, it would seem, was the downed pilot though, for once, we were able to mount a rescue and retrieve 3VP.
05:00Z: The Hercules hopped across from Ahmed al Jaber to Ali al Salem in Kuwait though, as it turned-out, this made no difference to anything. As so often, you have to find these things out by trial and error.
06:00Z: A last Toragh sortied from Abu Musa island and was promptly sunk by the Emiratis.
07:00Z: The remaining Gammon and Guideline sites and docks at Bandar Abbas were eliminated.
Predictably, despite best efforts, the cruiser Fox hit a stray mine well short of the narrows. This somehow destroyed her chopper despite there being no damage to the helipad and, guess what, I got a downed pilot in the Gulf of Guinea!. Meanwhile, our minesweepers continued to fuss around located mines, mostly without dealing with them, mission or not. USS Avenger’s ROV was especially useless. HMS Argyll also took light damage from another outlying mine. Basically, minesweeping just doesn’t work in CMO and I would plead with designers to either leave minefields out or abstract them in some way (exclusion zones, timers for clearing them given minesweepers in the vicinity?).
10:00Z: There was no option but to just plough through the minefields and brace for impact. We got through the first of two belts without too much trouble, though Saratoga hit two mines without taking significant damage (perhaps due to her huge DP value) and had to be desperately steered away from another as the AI equally desperately tried to sail her off course and over it.
12:00Z: With Saratoga through the Straits and no message or VP award, I felt I had nothing to lose by holding the press conference. As it turned-out, I did have something to lose – another 50VP!. I suppose the Saudis didn’t like the negative score… Playing this scenario feels like being in an abusive relationship at times.
All major SAMs (i.e. those that score VP) at Bandar Abbas were now destroyed.
We began aggressive patrols towards Shiraz with the F-14s. The first Fulcrum encountered was actually downed with the first Phoenix (on 56%). I almost felt guilty.
13:00Z: The two Tomcats then missed with all three shots at the next trio of MiG-29s. A second pair of F-14s took over and downed the Iranian fighters, though they had to resort to Sparrows to get the 50% kill ratio.
14:00Z: USS Fox was further damaged by mines as we hit a second belt, incurring flooding and fires. Nevertheless, her sacrifice allowed the rest of the task force to get through.
A small strike on Shiraz with the available aircraft didn’t achieve much in the face of numerous SAMs. A Grumble (still hindered by the bug) and a Gadfly were disabled and an empty hangar destroyed. This drew-out a full regiment of 24 Iranian Tomcats, which chased us all the way back to Saratoga. Our SAMs disposed of six of them (no VP, of course) and the others withdrew. A MiG-29 had sortied while this was going-on and was shot down by a US Tomcat.
15:00Z: Two F-14s engaged yet another pair of Fulcrums. We got the usual one hit with four Phoenixes at evens chances but risking closing to Sparrow range paid-off and the other MiG was downed.
16:00Z: By now, Fox had her damage under control and we were reaching deeper water. The best bet seemed to be to steer N of Abu Musa, use the escorts to beat hell out of it with guns on the way and then head for the Dubai area.
An F-14 got two more Fulcrums, using Sparrows after her Phoenixes missed.
18:00Z: By the close on Day 4, the score was -156. Losses came to a CVH, 2 DD, 3 FFG, a PGM, 10 ROVs, 2 RHIBs, a fighter, 11 choppers and two land elements.
The Warsaw Pact had lost an SSGN, SSN, SSK, 30 fighters, 26 attack planes, 8 support aircraft and 102 land elements, while Iran had lost 6 AMC, 2 SSK, 2 DD, 6 PGM, 2 minelayers, 160 small craft, 36 fighters, 31 attack planes, 4 support aircraft, 4 choppers and 79 land elements.
Bandar Abbas had been neutralised (apart from the mines) and the Saratoga CVBG was through to the open waters of the Gulf. It still seems crazy to authorise tankers to blunder through under AI control and risk the mines, while the enemy still have their Fencers and longer-ranged bombers with which to strike at them and 18 Tomcats and around a dozen Fulcrums with which to escort them.
There’s increasingly little point in playing Day 5 but, if someone so requests, I will play through it.
Otherwise, I’m holding-off playing the penultimate Chains of War scenario (Armed Diplomacy) until 1328.15 comes-out officially, as the Chinese Grumbles will be affected by the bug until this happens. I might play something smaller in the interim.
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
thanks Vince
Am I correct in understanding that the C-130 did not deposit ammo when you sent her north?
B
Am I correct in understanding that the C-130 did not deposit ammo when you sent her north?
B
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And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
Re: Indian Ocean Fury 5 - Hormuz Hoedown
Pretty sure that it did deposit ammo at the first base it reached (Ahmed al Jaber). I readied it, then flew it on to the second one (Ali al Salem) in case it was necessary to visit both (which isn't made clear) but there was no message on or after arrival at the latter. At the close on Day 4, there were 90/120 AMRAAMs, 107/120 Sparrows, 101/200 Sidewinder Ms and 40/10,000 Sidewinder Ps at Ahmed al Jaber and 60/60 Sidewinder Ms, 176/200 Sidewinder Ls and 12/10,000 Sidewinder Ps at Ali al Salem. Comparing this with the numbers at the start of the scenario, Ahmed al Jaber has been supplied and Ali al Salem hasn't. Neither base used any A2A missiles over the four days, so it didn't matter hugely.