Battle of the First Salvo, Eastern Med (War that Never Was)

[hmscott4]

First time posting to this forum. I hope I don't break any rules. I am NOT a good player by ANY means! I understand a lot of the basic theory and I played Harpoon Classic many years ago, but I am still very much a beginner. I lack the patience and the discipline (and imagination) to make some of the more advanced game mechanics really work.

Spoilers ahead.

Summary: After three tries, I was able to come out with a Triumph, but I did need to make some adjustments. So, here goes.

Adjustments (made through Scenario Editor):
1. Removed Russian spy vessel that was placed next to CVBG. If I didn't, then I got absolutely spammed with anti-ship missiles from the get go. If there's some sort of limiter in place that's supposed to prevent Red from shooting until war is declared, it's not working.
2. I set my S-3 Vikings to maritime surveillance. The scenario explicitly states that there are no subs.
3. I set four A-6E Intruders loaded with GBUs to carry Harpoons.

Setup:
1. Two CAP zones. One to the North of the CVBG (~250 miles) in anticipation of Red bombers and one to the NW of the CVBG in anticipation of anti-ship missiles.
2. One tanker track to support the northern CAP. I disabled A-A refueling except for the northern CAP (more on that in the end notes)
3. Two Task Pools targeting East and West. I filled them with A-6's and F-18s (with a mix of SEAD and BVR) and EA-6Bs
4. For East and West strikes, I created one package each targeting enemy HVUs.
5. One Task Pool targeting the missile boats and filled with AV-8s
6. For the missile boats, I created three individual packages each with two AV-8s (there were so many missile boats, I needed to do something to spread things out)
6. One Task Group and Package for a Land Strike targeting Red Radars (see end notes)
7. Two Patrol Tracks for S-3 Vikings to monitor for traffic (overkill yes, but I had the assets)
8. One Patrol area for Pioneer UAVs

Action Summary
1. The first main strikes against the primary Red SAGs were underwhelming. Red missile defense was stunningly effective. I'm not sure I tracked any hits. The strikes were timed to go off about 40 minutes after receiving Warning Red. Even though I limited the target pool to HVUs, it looked like almost all the Harpoons and Walleyes were shot down.
1a. The SEAD escorts did fire missiles, but never to any effect.
1b. The AAW escorts mostly got shot down for their trouble.

2. The strike against the missile boats was slightly more effective. I got three for the loss of two Harriers. I got another four with Harpoons from my SAG.

3. The Red bombers were completely chewed up. Between allied Air Defense and the F-14s, all were shot down, for the loss of two F-14 (ambushed by MiG-31s).

4. I progressively eliminated the remaining missile boats with salvos of Harpoons from the SAG and CVBG. Not efficient, but....ugh.

5. While waiting for rearm/reload:
5a. My Ticonderogas and CAP got to hone their missile defense skills
5b. The Land Strike mostly did its job. All but a couple of radar installations were shut down. I don't have a sense whether this affected the outcome or Red operations or not.

6. The second strikes (after 5 hour rearm/refuel) were more effective, finally killing the HVU targets. I also killed off the HVU units in the Red group farthest to the West with a strike from my NAVFORCENT ships.

7. I had to do a little cleanup with a last strike from two four-ships of A-6s armed with Harpoons, but by then things were winding down.

Glitches, gotchas, other:
1. In the first run through, I lost about 4 aircraft that crashed after running out of fuel. Every plane was trying to head to the Tanker(s) supporting the Northern CAP (250 miles to the north). After that, I set a Side Doctrine of no refueling and then made an exception for the Northern CAP mission. Things went much better after that.

2. I think there's a glitch in Package/Mission planning for Naval Ship and Land Strikes. At least in this scenario. I set up a Package for a ToT that was reasonable (current time plus 2 hours). When I closed the Mission Editor, I saw that the missiles were already about 1/3 of the way to the targets. This happened multiple times. The only work-around I found was to set the Mission/Package to "Inactive". Then I activated it just before I thought it would fire. Very manual and time consuming. This behavior doesn't happen in Training Scenarios.

3. In a similar vein, I had to keep a close eye on my surface assets. If used in a Land Strike, they would continue to maneuver closer to the target unless I removed the mission/package (or removed the units from the mission/package).

4. I stacked the two first air strikes too close together. The returning aircraft took a *really* long time to land on the carrier. Next time I know to space that out a little more.

5. The Pioneer UAVs were at times sitting right on top of Red SAGs, but I was getting no joy on identifying the targets positively (ie, CG, DDG, FFG, etc). How do I get a positive ID on a ship without someone getting shot at first?

6. I used to be able to alter flight paths for Anti-Ship and Land Attack missiles. I specifically remember being able to do this (from the mission editor), maybe with version 1.07? Now, I can't figure out how. All my missile shots run straight in. What am I missing?

Losses:
2 F-14s
4 F-18s
2 AV-8s
2 UAVs (Pioneers)

Overall:
It took a lot of effort to create the Task Pools and Packages to achieve a coordinated ToT for the first air strikes. The results were underwhelming. Red missile defense was crazy effective. In one case, I watched four Harpoons get shot down within 2 miles of the target (CIWS, I assume). Even adding 16 TASMs from BB62 didn't help; it just deleted a few SAMs from Red's inventory (which, I guess, might be the point).

Eliminating the Red Spy ship seemed like a necessary scenario edit for me. The other edits were probably superfluous.

I love the concepts and I love the structure of the game. I need a faster PC and more monitors.

[Kushan04]

First, welcome to the forum. Great AAR.

Second, regarding task pools and packages - you don't need to use them to use the Takeoff Time/Time on Target/Time on Station functionality. They can be used with normal missions. Task pools and packages are there simply to help players to organize their forces.

[Nikel]

Adjustments (made through Scenario Editor):
1. Removed Russian spy vessel that was placed next to CVBG. If I didn't, then I got absolutely spammed with anti-ship missiles from the get go. If there's some sort of limiter in place that's supposed to prevent Red from shooting until war is declared, it's not working.
2. I set my S-3 Vikings to maritime surveillance. The scenario explicitly states that there are no subs.
3. I set four A-6E Intruders loaded with GBUs to carry Harpoons.

1. You may sink it.

Per the scenario briefing

Execution:

At your discretion.

The ship is identified and unfriendly.

No war declared? No problem, declare it an accident. Just kidding, you may sink it without problem

Regarding 2 and 3, you may do it while playing, more time is required to be ready, but there is plenty of it in this scenario.

5. The Pioneer UAVs were at times sitting right on top of Red SAGs, but I was getting no joy on identifying the targets positively (ie, CG, DDG, FFG, etc). How do I get a positive ID on a ship without someone getting shot at first?

Indeed this happens, perhaps it is a good idea to post a save (zipped) highlighting the issue in the tech support forum.

I had no idea this stuff existed already in the 80s, and launched from a battleship

6. I used to be able to alter flight paths for Anti-Ship and Land Attack missiles. I specifically remember being able to do this (from the mission editor), maybe with version 1.07? Now, I can't figure out how. All my missile shots run straight in. What am I missing?

What version are you playing?

The devs fixed that one in B1706.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=411954

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[hmscott4]

I'm playing version 1.08 (1676)
I'm using the latest version of the Community Scenario Pack (CSP 51, August 22, 2025)

I'm considering trying out the beta (hotfix) release for 1.08. I have it downloaded, but I have not installed it yet. It didn't see anything in the release notes concerning the issues that I saw.

Some additional notes (and a thank you).

First off, a big thank you to the individuals who have created this, continue to maintain it and continue to publish updates to the Community Scenario Packs. It's thankless, I'm sure, but it is appreciated.

As regards the Red SAGs spamming me from the start (if I leave the Red Spy vessel there), I checked and there is an "Activation Time" set on the Red strike missions. It's set to either 0200 for the surface units or 0130 for the Badgers. The missions themselves are all set to "Inactive." I opened the latest version of the scenario in Scenario Editor and re-saved and experienced the same issue (ie, Red surface units shooting ASuW missiles immediately and not respecting mission activation time). I see that this issue has been reported before and was supposed to have addressed in the past. I also see a note about the mission having been created in a certain manner (ie, with the "Open Mission Planner" option checked from the mission creation window.

For me, the issue is that most of my CAP assets aren't ready and I run out of air defense munitions rapidly.

Concerning the inability to plot course for missiles, this affected my Harpoons, TLAMs and TASMs. I recall it also being an issue in the First Strike 2016 scenario when I tried the NASM missile.

What I am seeing is that the "Plot Course" button (when selecting manual weapon allocation (SHIFT+F1)) is dimmed and not clickable (even after weapon allocation and selecting the allocated weapon). Previously, I would allocate the missile(s) and then click "Plot Course" and the allocation window would minimize. Then (from the map) I could drag the course around as necessary. By contrast, from the Mission/Package planner, I don't see a way to generate a flight plan for the missiles at all and therefore, I don't see a way to adjust the missile courses.

Again, I'm learning and still very new. I will see if I can find the forum to post issues/bugs and do a better job of documenting the things that I am seeing.

Thank you again!