Chains of War Bonus 4 - Paracel 74 Clash 19/1/74

[fitzpatv]

The second Chains of War bonus scenario (chronologically), covers a historical skirmish between Chinese and South Vietnamese light naval forces. In the aftermath of the US withdrawal from Vietnam and before the Communist takeover, China sent a small force into the Paracels to test its claim to the islands. South Vietnam responded with force. You can play either side in the game.

To be honest, there’s not much to be said about this one. As South Vietnam, you have two coastguard cutters armed with 127mm guns and a destroyer escort and minesweeper with 76mm calibre. Each of the former is paired with one of the latter, the pairs starting a moderate distance apart.

China’s forces are split into two groups. Right next to the Vietnamese are two Kronshtadt-class corvettes with Soviet 85mm guns and a pair of T-43 minesweepers with 37mm weapons, the latter having a forward arc only. Too far away to help are two Hainan-class patrol craft with 57mm guns. Neither side has any torpedoes or missiles of any kind.

It is hard to see how the Chinese can win this. In the almost immediate opening firefight, the Kronshtadts and T-43s are hopelessly outgunned if they fight and too close to flee. The only risk for the Viets is that the Kronshtadts might do some serious damage before they go down. The T-43s will be lucky to get into range. Unless this quartet can cripple the Vietnamese, there is no point in the Hainans, whose main weapons have half the range of the enemy 127mm guns, even trying to engage.

I played it first as the South Vietnamese and quickly sank the first four Chinese ships for 3VP each, which was enough for a Minor Victory. One of the cutters had her guns knocked-out and had to retire W but the damage was (harshly for the Chinese) considered insufficient to score them any points. The destroyer escort took some minor damage and had one 76mm gun put out-of-action but was able to continue.

I encountered a bug in that the game kept doing attack calculations for the cutter’s 81mm mortar long after the Chinese ships had been sunk and continued doing so until the end of the four-hour scenario, even though no ammo was actually being expended. This had a nasty impact on game performance. I’ve raised a bug report (and attached a log and save file this time!).

Proceeding E to Woody Island, the Viet ships then disposed of the two Hainans, which were unwise enough to press the issue. This secured a Triumph with a score of +18.

I tried to do the best I could with the Chinese. Firstly, I attempted to close at Flank and succeeded in sinking one of the cutters and damaging the destroyer escort but all four ships were then sunk and the T-43s never got close enough (1.5nm) to fire. The Hainans ran away and it ended as a Minor Defeat with a score of -9. On the second try, I just fled with radars off to see what would happen but the Kronshtadts and T-43s were still sunk.

Hopefully, the remaining bonus scenarios will prove more interesting...