Pacific Fury 2 - Bombeska on Hokkaido 13/2/94

[fitzpatv]

In this one, you play the Soviet side as they attempt to neutralise American and Japanese forces on Hokkaido to facilitate the passage of their ships and aircraft into the North Pacific via La Perouse Strait (between Hokkaido and Sakhalin). Coincidentally, I was actually in Hokkaido in 1994, albeit in August, for a holiday that became a struggle to get by on insufficient funds and (at the time) no credit card. I made it onto the plane home with very little cash remaining, but the trip did have its better moments, notably climbing an active volcano.

As Soviet regional commander, your orders are to close-down Chitose air base, near Sapporo, as well as eliminate all ‘radio-technical assets’, which are radars and a set of outlying ELINT, COMINT and SIGINT stations around the coast of Hokkaido. You also need to clear the Strait of all enemy surface, submarine and mine assets while protecting a flotilla of small ASW and minesweeping vessels at that location. Finally, the Russians are trying to construct a new helicopter base at Yuzhno-Kurilsk, at the S tip of that island chain and just off the Japanese coast. There is a disguised supply ship moored there and more stores will be ferried-in by chopper – all of this needs protection.

In the Straits, you have a Grisha corvette, five Pauk and Stenka-class patrol boats and two minesweepers, covered by a Krivak II ASW frigate. Collectively, this force is decent at ASW, but lacks SAMs and is reliant on air cover and support from a large Grumble battery on the Soviet side of the Straits.

Not all Soviet air units are under your control, as some belong to the VVS (Air Force) and others to the VVO (Homeland Defence) whereas you are a naval officer. At Iturup in the Kurils, there is a squadron of G-model Floggers to cover the base-building, with a couple of EW and transport/attack choppers in support. You also have some Spetsnaz, who can be loaded as Cargo onto the choppers if you can find a reason to do so.

Korsakov in South Sakhalin is a helicopter base and hosts a variety of ASW, EW, minesweeping and attack types. Also in this region are Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, which is intended for use by a force of 32 Fulcrums, which start on Ferry loadouts at Khabarovsk on the mainland. There is some ammo for these planes at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and more will (theoretically - I didn’t notice that it actually did) be brought-in by a pair of Cub transports (under AI control) at Khabarovsk. A third base in South Sakhalin is Dolinsk-Sokol, where there are a dozen Foxhounds, but these are under AI control and acquiring them costs 75VP, with heavy penalties if you get any of them killed.

There are two bases in North Sakhalin. At Leonidovo, you have a few useful support aircraft providing AEW and EW services. Smirnykh is home to another Flogger G squadron, but this is a PVO unit and costs 50VP if you want to commandeer it.

On the mainland of Soviet Ussuriland, there are three bases near the coast. Maygatka houses a selection of Fencer, Foxbat and Fitter recon, ELINT and EW planes. Mongokhto has no less than 64 Fitter attack planes, but they are mostly shortish-ranged, day-only (the scenario begins at 21:30 local time) and start without loadouts in any case. Sovetskaya Gavan has two dozen Flogger K fighters, but is PVO-controlled and obtaining these aircraft costs 75VP.

Further inland, there are 20 Fencers at Pereyaslavka, some armed with Krypton stand-off ARMs, but these belong to the VVS and are due to be re-assigned elsewhere in 9.5 hours’ time. Retaining them for longer costs 50VP. At Komsomolsk na Amure, there are 18 old-model Fencer C attack planes, some of which have Kyle ARMs or Kerry stand-off bombs and also 32 Flankers, half of which won’t be ready for six hours. Awkwardly, the base is somewhat remote from the action and it will be necessary to give the readying Flankers light Alamo loadouts if they are to escort any strikes on Chitose.

Otherwise, there are various SAM defences everywhere except the Kurils, though few are likely to see action. There are also some Sepal SSM batteries (land-based Shaddocks) near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and another Spetsnaz unit at Korsakov.
All decisions on spending VP to obtain AI-controlled aircraft have to be made inside the opening hour of game-time.

You will mostly be facing Japanese opponents. Japan is known to have at least one Harushio-class SSK (with Harpoons), Yamagumo-class ASW destroyer and Italian-made Sparviero missile-carrying PCFG in the region. There are numerous F-15s at Chitose and American F-16s at Misawa in Northern Honshu, while the Japanese have F-1 attack planes which can carry some nasty stand-off anti-shipping missiles. More of these can be deployed via SSM-1 batteries on land, potentially making the Straits very unhealthy for Soviet shipping. Various AEW and MPA aircraft can support the defenders, who have Nike Hercules and HAWK SAMs, plus MANPADs and AA to protect their assets.

The Russians basically aren’t ready, with too many air assets without loadouts, day-only or out-of-position.

A big risk seemed to be a combined attack by Harpoon-firing SSK, PCFGs, land-based SSMs and attack planes on the Straits. The Grumbles would help here, but the Floggers (if I acquired them) were armed with Apexes, which are no use against sea-skimming missiles and would have to rely on their secondary Aphids or even cannon. Otherwise, I put all sonars on active and made sure that the minesweepers had all of their tools operating.

Chitose would not be an easy nut to crack, having two big runways and a taxiway and plenty of defences. It was also a considerable distance from our bases and the Fitters at Mongokhto would not be able to get there. The only possibility seemed to be to give them 122mm penetrator rockets with a High-Low-High loadout and re-base them to Korsakov on the return leg but even this required getting to within 2nm of the airport at low altitude in the teeth of the defences.

13/2/94 12:30Z (21:30 or 22:30L): However reluctant I was to give the AI a head-start on VP, I reckoned that I needed to have adequate fighter cover over the Straits. The Foxhounds, however tempting, were too expensive politically, so I acquired the Floggers at Smirnykh, which would have to be brought down, re-based to Korsakov and ferried back again for ammo as needed. The Floggers on the mainland were expensive and too far away to be truly useful. It also seemed imperative to have enough strike planes, so I paid the 50VP to keep the Fencers at Pereyaslavka under my control (until the last half-hour). So I started on -100 and a Disaster, zero being a Minor Defeat.

It then turned-out that the Fulcrum crews were 25% Average and 75% Cadets, with the VVS Liaison Officer recommending that they be used for ground-attack only. There was also a relative shortage of Alamos at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk – enough, I calculated, for 60 sorties with two per plane. Ground-attack ammo consisted of piles of bombs and rockets, but the 122mm weapons were theoretically useful against the sort of armoured or buried targets we were dealing with. It seemed best to use the Fulcrums for strikes and intercepting enemy missiles, but I was glad I’d bought the Smirnykh Floggers. With war due to start in 30 minutes, I sent four Flankers from Komsomolsk to reinforce the Straits, re-basing them to Korsakov. We did, at least, have decent AEW and some jamming planes aloft for whatever good they might do.

A Foxbat recon flight revealed a big problem. While, mercifully, there did not appear to be any PCFG flotilla in the Straits, there was an SSM-1 battery on the S shore with enough firepower to wreck my ships. Worse, there was no immediate way to attack it when hostilities commenced, so we would have to pull all vessels back ASAP under the Grumble umbrella (which meant that they were outside the patrol area that scores VP if a ship remains for at least 12 hours).

As we weren’t ready, there was no prospect of strikes to begin-with. Hopefully, the ensuing defensive action would bleed enemy fighter strength...

13:00Z: As war was declared, a Sepal sank a Yamagumo destroyer that was moving past Rishiri Island off NW Hokkaido – it had no real air defence, like most Japanese ships of the era. This scored 25VP.

Four Japanese F-15s went after the four Floggers doing CAP over Yuzhno-Kurilsk, driving them away. The enemy pursued towards Iturup, abusing their Afterburners so that they ran low on fuel. Turning away, they were chased by more Floggers with the D-model Apex (IR-guided) and the trailing pair were downed for 3VP each.

I sent a Fencer with Kryptons to probe Chitose and it destroyed a radar on the W coast of Hokkaido for 5VP before fleeing two F-16s. Evidence was that the Japanese were keeping their SAM radars dark and relying on well-screened Hawkeyes for AEW, so this avenue of attack wasn’t promising.

A Fencer C, armed with Kyles, obliterated the SSM-1 battery, which had not opened fire for whatever reason. It scored no VP, but was a big relief. Ships could now move cautiously into the designated patrol zone, with the Krivak providing distant cover with its Silex ASW torpedo launcher. Choppers scoured the waters for subs and mines.

14:00Z: Another Fencer took-out a radar at Wakkanai on the Japanese side of the Straits.

Two Flankers tried to attrite enemy CAP near Chitose and put down two Eagles for one loss (Russian air losses cost just 1VP each).

They also detected a lone PCFG off the W coast and the Sepal battery engaged it. Infuriatingly, the first Sepal was intercepted by F-15s, the second was spoofed (50%), then two more fell foul of the Japanese CAP.

Two Eagles, chasing our retiring Flankers, crazily pursued as far as Khabarovsk. One was downed by a Gammon but the second was ridiculously lucky and stooged around Engaged Defensive until the twelfth shot fired at it by SAMs and Flankers finally brought it down. I’ve set before that luck is the inverse of ability…

Two Fencers with cluster bombs attacked a pair of radars at Abashiri, halfway along the N coast of Hokkaido, having difficulty in destroying one of them. The virtual dice chose not to roll for me again.

15:00Z: The PCFG rolled two more 50% spoofs against Sepals and another failed to lock-on and sailed wide. We had four left, but I couldn’t find the third Sepal battery. It appeared that it didn’t exist, due to a bug.

Three Flankers approached Chitose, but were outnumbered by six Eagles and Falcons and were obliged to retreat, losing one airframe.

More F-15s swept towards Iturup, downing two Floggers with two shots while the Russian fighters expended lots of ammo but only managed one kill. At least it left us a point ahead...

16:00Z: Flogger reinforcements dealt with the two surviving F-15s as they pushed their luck despite being low on fuel and ammo.

A Fencer with lots of light bombs finally disposed of the frustrating PCFG for 25VP. Surprisingly, it was the only one.
Some F-1s took advantage of a low ebb in our CAP availability and made a move on the Straits. We had just two Flankers on-hand and, with much expenditure of ammo, they destroyed two unescorted attack planes, with the others withdrawing.

The Fencer had bombs left and tried to take-out the radar at Wakkanai, but was chased by two F-15s and overran the target under pressure. It got away, but a minesweeping chopper just happened to be in the Eagles’ path, couldn’t get clear and was lost, thankfully just for the standard 1VP. Our Grumbles missed all over the place and the F-15s escaped.

Two more Eagles tried to intercept a chopper flight to Yuzhno-Kurilsk and were downed for one Flogger. The AI was routinely using Afterburner for its fighter patrols and I was suspicious enough to calculate how long an Eagle can sustain this velocity. It amounted to some 21-22 minutes at 36k’. I never actually caught one cheating and they did slow down at intervals, which blurred things somewhat. Moving this fast all the time was certainly intimidating, but also pretty dumb.

17:00Z: Yet another pair of Eagles swept towards the Kurils and the Floggers shot them down without loss. I was finding that attacking from three sides and retreating from enemy lunges was effective in these duels, but four Floggers were needed to make it work against a pair of F-15s and things got difficult when there were three or more. It helped a bit that the F-15s were using Sparrows, not AMRAAMs.

The Harushio SSK (the Hayashio, in fact) showed-up near the E end of the Straits and, being on Weapons Free, began attacking neutral shipping with Harpoons, sinking a fishing boat and damaging a freighter (needs fixing). The Krivak lobbed a Silex into the vicinity, but it failed to lock-on. As our choppers began to search the area, there was an issue with being unable to lay sonobouys because there was ‘no channel available’. I checked and found that a Haze has 18 channels to sonobuoys, which presumably includes those already laid, of which there were plenty, but not in the right place. As a result, we had to rely on dipping sonar and initially found nothing.

18:00Z: Two Eagles tried to disrupt the ASW hunt and were shot-down by CAP and Grumbles.

Two more Eagles raided the Kurils and were dealt-with by the Floggers. Despite their losses, they sent-in four more, numbers told and they bagged three Floggers for one plane damaged.

19:00Z: Two of the offending Eagles stuck around and were disposed-of by the next quartet of Floggers, then two MORE appeared!. In subsequent duels, three F-15s were destroyed for one Flogger, making 22 down so far. The score had improved to +26 and Average.

The Hayashio was finally spotted outside our search area by a patrolling Flanker pilot as it came-up to charge its batteries. It was outside Silex range and was mobbed by choppers, which carried one torpedo each. As so often, it was like pulling teeth, with the first torpedo damaging the sub, the second being a dud and the third finally getting the job done for 100VP.

20:00Z: Three more Eagles swept towards the Kurils. In the ensuing scrap, four Apexes were spoofed on 20%, four out of five more missed on 55-67% chances and we lost four planes for one Japanese fighter, the enemy scoring with virtually every shot fired, albeit on 74% chances.

After much pain with minimum altitude and bomb release range, a ground-attack Fulcrum finished the Abashiri radar with bombs as daylight permitted strikes.

Another Fulcrum with 122mm rockets did enough damage to the ELINT and COMINT stations at Nemuro, near the Kurils, to earn 50VP before having to re-base to Iturup. The score was now +180 and a Minor Victory.

21:00Z: Four Japanese F-1s made for the Straits without escorts and were downed by CAP.

A Fulcrum disabled the ELINT and COMINT stations at Wakkanai with rockets, then more took-out the more durable SIGINT stations there and at Nemuro. All this took the score to +295 and a Triumph. An Eagle tried to intervene at Nemuro and was shot down by the Flogger patrol.

Two more Eagles headed for the Straits (how many did they have?!) and fell to Grumbles and CAP.

22:00Z: By this point, the Soviets had effectively taken control of La Perouse Strait, eliminating enemy naval power and depleting their air force. There appeared to be no mines. With the threat from Chitose reduced, there was no real need to mount a risky attack on it, as we already had a Triumph. As often happens in the Fury series, one shouldn’t take one’s orders too seriously…

23:00Z: A series of Fulcrum sorties tried to eliminate a radar site at Nemuro and three planes were needed before the luck barrier was battered down.

Two F-1s raided the Straits. Like Hayashio, they were on Weapons Free and began merrily attacking fishing boats, sinking one. CAP caught and downed one of them. There is a recurring problem with the game at the moment (1567.6) where planes will stubbornly follow (and even extend) their last plotted course instead of engaging enemy aircraft, even when both individual and Mission Doctrine states otherwise. It takes a lot of Unassigning and course re-plotting to fix it and this can put the player at a serious disadvantage sometimes.

14/2/94 00:00Z: Yet another Eagle tried to coincide with the supply chopper’s repeated shuttles to and from Yuzhno-Kurilsk, but was shot down by CAP. A Flogger then probed enemy airspace and downed an Orion for 6VP. This prompted two more Eagles to scramble from Chitose and give chase. This pair were incredibly lucky and killed five Floggers, damaging another, before finally being overwhelmed. Our ability to miss on 50-60% chances was astounding…

A Flanker from Korsakov intruded near Chitose and bagged another Orion before withdrawing in the face of two F-16s. Clearly, the enemy still had plenty of CAP there and trying to attack with the resources available was pointless. I probably shouldn’t have retained the bombers at Pereyaslavka, as I got very little use out of them.

01:00Z: We received 10VP for an ASW vessel being in the Strait for 12 hours or more.

02:00Z: Misawa mounted a big strike towards Iturup, with numerous F-1s coming in low and F-16s flying shotgun (literally) at 36k’. Despite the odds and the fact that their earlier efforts deserved better, the Iturup Floggers had little choice but to engage. I figured that I’d get more VP for going after the F-1s than by tangling with the Falcons, even though this choice would allow the latter to take unopposed shots at me. Our initial CAP of about seven MiG-23s was swept away, but took down most of the attack planes and the F-16s then went Shotgun (or Winchester) and withdrew. We only had a few Floggers left to intercept the remaining F-1s but, using guns when Apexes and Aphids ran-out, they managed to down the lot. Those few attack planes that reached Iturup just circled without bombing, so goodness knows what they were loaded with.

More ships scored for being in La Perouse Strait, with the two Sonya minesweepers netting 25 each. Clearly, there were no actual mines in-game, but the award represented notionally getting rid of them. For me, this was a much more playable and elegant solution compared with the clumsy and frustrating minesweeping rules. We also scored 10VP for successfully unloading the supply ship at Yuzhno-Kurilsk.

05:00Z: Two Eagles insisted on buzzing the Strait, followed at a distance by a lone F-1. Grumbles accounted for the fighters and a Flanker got the attack plane.

06:30Z: It ended in a Triumph, with a score of +484.

The USSR lost 27 fighters and a minesweeping chopper.

Japan (there were no American losses) lost an SSK, destroyer, PCFG, 31 fighters, 24 attack planes, 2 Orions, 5 radars, an SSM battery plus three facilities destroyed and three more disabled.

Two fishing boats were sunk (by the Japanese).

Overall, it turned-out to be rather easier than it had seemed at the outset. Next time, we will have one more ‘opening day of the war with NATO caught napping’ scenario, this time around the Philippines. Hopefully, it will be more manageable than Scenario 1 was!. It might have to wait a few weeks, though, as I’m off to the Alps on 15th July to do some mountain-climbing.

[Gunner98]

Thanks Vince

Appreciate the report.

B

[Knightpawn]

My turn:

This was very well designed and extremely fun to play. It was quite easy at the end. Maybe the scoring system was a bit "biased" in favor of Russia. I managed a triumph without inflicting a scratch on Chitose Air Base. Other than that I managed to destroy all three intelligence station clusters and control the straights.

1. Of course I "bought" the expensive Mig 31B sitting at Dolinsk. I would not miss those AA9-Amos for anything. I also bought the Mig 23MLs @ Iturup and kept until the end the bombers @ Verino.
2. Controlling the straits: Easy. Turn on all active sonars, have all vessels move at creep. At some point I discovered a Jap sub and I sunk it for 100 points. It managed to torpedo and kill just a patrol craft.
3. Destroying the three intel stations was the more fun aspect of the mission. I used the Yuznho base to transport SpecOps near Nemuro and proceed to blow up the stations on foot! There was some firefight with light Japanese ground forces as well. I also sent a second SpecOp mission to blow remnants of the northern intel station which has been already heavily degraded from the air. Spec Ops erased everything from the map at that point. Okushri station was made targe of a Ground ASuW 3x2 Su-24 Fencers launched from Verino. They were preceeded by a 8x2 Su-27S Sweep armed with AA10-Alamos and two 2x2 Sead patrols (one for each Nike) ready to shoot anti radiation missiles if air defenses went active.

You can see the main missions set up in the screenshot.

If there was more time I would have planned something similar for Chitose for the fun of it.

Overall an great experience

Screenshot 2025-07-08 004427.png (1.73 MiB) Viewed 222 times

Screenshot 2025-07-08 011356.png (1.74 MiB) Viewed 222 times

AS OF: 14-Feb-94 6:30:59 AM

SIDE: USSR
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
2x Forward Observer + Sensor Tripod (NVG + Generic Laser Designator)
3x Infantry Section [7.62mm MG/Unguided Infantry Anti Tank Weapon]
1x Mi-8T Hip C
4x MiG-23ML Flogger G
9x MiG-29 Fulcrum A
3x MiG-31B Foxhound
4x Sniper Section [12.7mm Anti-Materiel Rifle]
16x Spetsnaz Saboteur
4x Su-24 Fencer C
4x Su-24M Fencer D
10x Su-27S Flanker B


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
2x 23mm Gsh-23L Burst [40 rnds]
1x 30mm Gsh-30-1 Burst [30 rnds]
124x 7.62mm MG Burst [20 rnds]
56x AA-10 Alamo A [R-27R, MR TSARH]
6x AA-10 Alamo B [R-27T, MR IR]
27x AA-10 Alamo C [R-27ER, LR TSARH]
1x AA-10 Alamo E [R-27P, MR ARM]
14x AA-11 Archer [R-73]
14x AA-7 Apex C [R-24R, SARH]
4x AA-7 Apex D [R-24T, IR]
4x AA-8 Aphid [R-60M]
45x AA-9 Amos B [R-33S, SARH]
10x AS-18 Kazoo A [Kh-59M]
18x AS-7 Kerry [Kh-23]
2x AS-9 Kyle [Kh-28]
4x FAB-500M-62 GPB
17x Generic Chaff Salvo [4x Cartridges]
10x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
5x Generic Flare Salvo [2x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
14x Generic Flare Salvo [3x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
1x Generic Flare Salvo [4x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
6x Generic Unguided Anti Tank Weapon
3x SA-10b Grumble [5V55R]
2x SA-5c Gammon [5V28M5]
1x SET-65M Enot-2 [NATO ET-80A[76]]
6x SSC-1 Sepal [P-35B]
4x SSC-3 Improved Styx [P-21]
4x SSC-3 Improved Styx [P-22, IR]
2x SS-N-14 Silex [85RU, Dual-Role, UMGT-1 Torpedo + 185kg Unitary]



SIDE: US/Japan
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
4x 7.62mm MG
2x Building (Guard Post)
2x Bunker (COMINT Station)
2x Bunker (ELINT Station)
1x Bunker (SIGINT Station)
1x DDK 113 Yamagumo
5x F-15DJ Eagle
27x F-15J Eagle
8x F-16CJ Blk 50 Falcon
4x Infantry Section [7.62mm MG/Unguided Infantry Anti Tank Weapon]
1x P-3C Orion Update II
1x PG 01 [Mod Sparviero, 1-Go]
1x Radar (AN/FPS-20A)
1x Radar (AN/FPS-6A HF)
1x Radar (J/FPS-1)
2x Radar (J/FPS-2)
1x SS 583 Harushio
4x SSM-1 [Type 88]
2x Vehicle (C2/C3)
2x Vehicle (JTPS-P15)
2x Vehicle (Truck, HMMWV)


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
12x 20mm/85 M61A1 Vulcan Burst [100 rnds]
26x 7.62mm MG Burst [20 rnds]
8x 76mm/50 Twin Frag Burst [2 rnds]
19x AIM-120A AMRAAM
99x AIM-7M Sparrow III
31x AIM-9L Sidewinder
2x Generic Acoustic Decoy
52x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
14x Generic Flare Salvo [3x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
6x MIM-14B Nike Hercules
4x Mk182 SRBOC Chaff [Seduction]

[Gunner98]

Thanks for the AAR. Well done.

B

[Knightpawn]

Thanks for the AAR. Well done.

B

I am doing the Pacific 3 since yesterday (being at around 1600Z). This is a very well designed scenario and fund to play, with many things taking place all at the same time around Philippines. Seems strange not to find mentions of it in the forums. Very well done (so far)!