The Philippines is dealing with a new insurgency that has taken a page from the Houthi playbook and is attacking merchant shipping. You command forces tasked with protecting merchant shipping and eliminating insurgent forces.
As always, please let me know what you think. Gameplay, events, scoring, the way the briefing and description are written, forces chosen, etc...what do you think? What needs to be fixed? What could be improved?
Thanks in advance!
Version 2 uploaded 5:50 PM CST 10/17/2025
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My strategy was to use the fast patrol boats closest to the merchants as close-in escorts and use the other one to reconnoiter the coast. I also launched 1 UAV. I had the frigate set course to rendezvous with the merchants but didn't expect it to do much for a while. Right off the bat, one patrol boat spotted a suicide drone, but the boat maneuvered away and the contact disappeared.
The recon patrol boat spotted an armed RHIB at Harrison, so I had it engage with Spike NLOS. It looked like the merchants were going to get uncomfortably close to the shore and I didn't want to deal with them getting hit, so I had the recon boat close to gun range. It ended up coming under mortar fire, so I quickly launched the NLOS-armed helicopter, and it took care of it quickly. The patrol boat sank the armed RHIB with causing any damage to civilians, and it apparently was never aware the patrol boat was even there or simply wasn't instructed to attack it.
The rest of the scenario was uneventful for the merchants, but I did have to keep track of them to make sure the patrol boats stayed side by side with them at all times. Otherwise, I focused on dealing with the other insurgent targets that were identified with the UAV. The FA-50s took out the suicide drone battery, and later (very close to the end of the scenario) Marines from the Tarlac landed at Harrison to take out the insurgents there.
The only other event of note is that a fishing boat that had been presumed to be neutral (the Gabriela) suddenly opened fire once the merchants neared, but at that point, the merchant in question was under escort from the frigate, whose 76mm cannon easily dealt with the hostile. The Gabriela opened fire from such great distance that all of its 60mm mortar rounds completely missed despite the vessels only traveling at cruise speed.
Despite successful performance on paper, I ended with a score of -110 (major defeat). I'll explain that below.
Feedback
The only “buggy” issue with the scenario is the scoring. After sinking the Gabriela, I did receive the points for sinking a hostile unit, but also lost points for a “merchant being sunk.” In another instance, I lost points after a suicide drone attacked a neutral RHIB, despite the briefing only indicating I had to protect the two container vessels. It seems some scoring events may have been structured incorrectly, possibly on account of there being two sides named “Neutrals.”
A lesser issue has to do with the paratroopers that are available to the player. A 60mm mortar is available to load, but neither aircraft is capable of carrying it. But more importantly, neither aircraft at the base has the range necessary to transport the paratroopers to the island. When using an automated cargo mission, the max range they can transport anything is less than 100 nm away, and when I tried to manually fly them there, they would have reached bingo fuel 20 nm away or so from the area near the enemy units where I wished to drop them. I suggest moving them to Clark Air Base (perhaps mentioning in the briefing that they have been prepositioned to be in range of the island) or just removing them.
I will note that I had no issues landing the Marines on “water” terrain. I actually didn’t intend to do so; the LCMs appear to offload them in a random location after being brought close to the shore instead of being able to bring them to a defined zone on land (as amphibious landing craft like LCACs can). But the troops were able to “get off the beach” just fine, moving into the forested area where the insurgents were. The portion of the briefing stating that amphibious landings might not be possible in some areas can probably be removed.
I didn’t peak under the hood, but it seems the insurgents will expend all of their suicide drones on the neutral vessels. If this is intentional, there is no issue, but if the insurgents are only intended to attack the container vessels, their mission will need to be fixed.
Comments
I enjoyed the gameplay. The naval threat was far less than I expected, so that aspect of it was less about combat and moreso an exercise in coordinating the escorts and their charges. This was plenty fun in its own right, and gave me a lot to do. The other side of the scenario is using aerial assets to strike the insurgents. The nearby civilians raised the tension and made the task of doing so engaging, although both the JDAMs and Mavericks had no problems avoiding them.
I am glad that the player does not lose points for the destruction of their own ground troops and I think it should remain that way. My experience with ground combat in CMO is that it is very “meat grinder-ish;” tactical planning for ground units can’t really contribute to a victory and winning is more about getting the first shot off and having the longest range weapon. Because all of the units involved are infantry or armed with infantry-caliber weapons, this is exacerbated, so I don’t think it would be fair to the player to have ground losses count against them, especially when CAS isn’t necessarily feasible or recommended (I assume the ground troops are present to provide the player with a “surgical” alternative to the bombs and missiles).
"One must not consider the individual objects without the whole."- Generalleutnant Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Royal Prussian Army
I also had the Insurgents getting trigger happy with Neutrals. Ended up sinking one fishing boat and one civilian RHIB with their suicide drones. Think it might be the drones being too discriminate if they start searching for a target after not finding a Philippine vessel they were initially shot at.
