Northern Fury 41 - Tour de Force 18/3/94

[fitzpatv]

Setting the Scene

With the exception of #34 The Longest Battle, this is the largest scenario in the whole Fury series, spanning ten days and half the Atlantic Ocean. Just getting ready to play it has been a game in itself and forms the first of eleven instalments of this AAR, which will be running for some time. I’ll be moving straight on to Day 1, then alternating it with Desert Storm.

The amphibious landings in Northern Norway have been postponed for a couple of weeks and STRKFLTNOR needs to hold position and tie-down the Soviets for ten days. Supply shortages mean that this has to be done with economy of effort. While the scenario is really playable as NATO only, there is a bizarre option to take the Bio side instead!.

In summary, the area between Greenland, Iceland and the coast of Norway around Tromso has been divided into nine Patrol Zones. NATO scores 50VP for keeping a US carrier in three of them (in the NE opposite Tromso and further S opposite Bodo), 25VP for similarly maintaining a British or French carrier in four more, 25 for keeping any carrier in an eighth zone and 25VP for having the command vessel Mount Whitney and any cruiser or destroyer in the ninth (NE of Jan Mayen), in each case for every complete 12 hour period in which the condition is met. The conditions are tested individually – you don’t have to satisfy them all to score.

The three US carrier zones start covered by the Enterprise, Roosevelt and Nimitz CVBGs. Ark Royal and Clemenceau begin in the two more Northerly Anglo-French zones, but there is nothing in the other two to begin-with. Carl Vinson is N of Iceland in no particular Zone, having just replenished. The Invincible group are in the ‘any carrier’ zone, while the Foch carrier group is away to the South off the coast of Portugal. Mount Whitney, with two escorts and the cruiser Virginia, with four, are in the former’s allocated zone.

Various convoys or single-ship sailings are spread across the map. TG Milwaukee consists of two frigates and four auxiliaries off the E coast of Central Greenland.

Five auxiliaries and two weak frigates form TG Kalamazoo, to the E of Iceland. Nearby, the small oiler Gold Rover and the cruiser Worden are sailing exposed and alone through sub-infested waters, the latter lacking even a chopper. North of Iceland, the Exeter TG (two destroyers and two frigates) and the European De Ruyter TG (five frigates) could potentially help them, given time.

SE of Iceland steams TG Supply, with three support ships escorted by two more underpowered frigates. West of Reykjavik is TG Seattle, with five supply vessels warded by one old Canadian frigate. Some way to their E is the Danish patrol boat Beskytteren, with a recon chopper.

Off S Greenland, the LPD Raleigh, with a freighter, small icebreaker, destroyer and two frigates, appears to be on some kind of mission to (perhaps) set-up a base on the Greenlandic coast.

There’s a cluster of shipping around Reykjavik, with two auxiliaries in Faxafloi Bay, three more in port (and ordered to stay there at pain of 1,000VP) and six AI-controlled civilian ships in the nearby non-military port. One of the two in the bay is the ammo ship Mount Baker, which has most of NATO’s in-theatre reserve of aerial mines aboard.

To the NW of Ireland, the British training ship Argus is carrying helicopters, as is the French helicopter carrier Jeanne d’Arc (back from the Indian Ocean). They have a destroyer, two frigates and a corvette for company and appear to be on their way to Jan Mayen to re-capture the island.

Away to their S are two single supply ships, Patuxent and Kanewha, while the oiler Detroit is between Galloway and Kintyre on the Scottish West Coast. Off the Outer Hebrides, the British SSN Turbulent starts the game out of comms. Since the scenario does not use the awful ‘Realistic’ Submarine Communications rules, this suggests that she has been attacked and quite possibly sunk by an enemy sub. All will no doubt become clear later.

West of the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, the oiler Fort Victoria is sailing with the frigate Cornwall.

A Dutch oiler, the Amsterdam, is in the English Channel. She has been fitted-out to operate several helicopters but, as with many of the aircraft carried on ships remote from the front line, these will not be ready for some days. It all suggests that units are being rushed into action in unseemly haste, given the uncomfortable strategic position.

The oiler Green Rover is in port at Plymouth, while the Durance is in dock at Brest.

Three oilers and two freighters are on their way towards Europe from the States. Of these, the Northern Light is carrying a valuable cargo of SAMs and TLAMs to the Clyde, while the Marshfield is taking a similar load to Reykjavik. All are alone and need escorts. Possible candidates are the Algonquin TG, with three Canadian frigates, the destroyer Paul F Foster (which has somehow gone to Norfolk, Virginia to refit since the Anvil scenario and is now heading back!) and the John F Kennedy CVBG, arriving in-theatre from the Caribbean campaign.

Two other strays are the auxiliary Fort Austin, off N Portugal near the Foch TG and the freighter Benjamin Isherwood, which is off Algiers.

In summary, there is an awful lot of vulnerable shipping just asking for a Russian SSN to take a shot at it. Escorts are spread thin.

Below the waves in a better sense, there are three NATO SSNs (two American and the British Trafalgar) in a picket line facing the Kola approaches, with the Norwegian SSK Ulla inshore. The Canadian SSK Onondaga is heading up the Greenlandic coast, while another US boat, the SSN Groton, is in the Western Atlantic. So, six subs plus the possibility of the Turbulent.

At land bases, there are Sentries, Orions and Aries at Reykjavik/Keflavik, more Sentries, Orions, Nimrods and VC.10 tankers at Lossiemouth and a Rivet Joint and U-2 at Mildenhall.

There is heavy demand globally for US tankers, so in the first hour of play, you have to decide whether to request 5, 10 or all 15 KC-135s at a) Keflavik and b) Mildenhall for the duration of the game. The options cost 125, 250 and 500VP, respectively per base (in a high-scoring scenario).

At RAF Fairford, there are 15 B-52H bombers, which can be requested in ‘cells’ of 3-4. This costs no points, but they need 20 hours to ready and are available for 48 hours total. Each cell can be used but once all-game. There is also a single-use B-52G that has some kind of special mission associated with it, but is requested in the same way.

As in Tongs, Phoenix missiles are in short supply and can only be used against Foxhounds or multi-engined aircraft.

A total of 96 TLAMs can be used, though I’m not clear how this is enforced, as you have more and can load the ones on Marshfield and Northern Light once they’ve been deposited at Reykjavik and the Clyde and ships have moved there. Over half of the permitted quota are on the Paul Foster.

You are warned that AMRAAMs, Sparrows, HARMs and AGM-84s (basically, anything useful) are limited to what starts on the carriers and supply ships.

US ships can replenish some SAMs and ‘other munitions’ at Rota (near Cadiz) or Norfolk, Virginia, while British warships can do the same at Clyde, Portsmouth and Plymouth, the French at Brest and the Canadians at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

There are a few Spearfish torpedoes for HMS Trafalgar at Clyde (this appears to bode ill for Turbulent, which isn’t mentioned in this context in the Briefing).

Some aircraft (a few F/A-18s, F-14s and Intruders) are readying at Oceana, Virginia and will be available to ferry over the ‘pond’ in a few days. Civilian (AI-controlled) transport flights are running between Oceana and Reykjavik.

Concerns over losses have led to restrictions on where ships can move. Four Phase Lines have been drawn across the Atlantic, with Line Alpha between Central Greenland, Iceland and the Orkneys, Bravo from Greenland to Jan Mayen to Norway, Charlie from N Greenland to the area NE of Tromso and Delta a little way NE of that. No USNS support ships can go N of Alpha without paying 1,000VP, no replenishment ships N of Bravo (250VP/time penalty) and no surface ships at all N of Charlie (1,000VP). Subs can’t go N of Delta, as this might compromise other sensitive sub-surface operations off the Kola (1,000VP lost for breaking this rule).

The Briefing warns that many ships are short of fuel and ammo but, in actuality, everything appears to start quite well-supplied with both. There’s a chance that this might immediately change once I actually start playing, but I doubt it. Still, a ten-day scenario is a ten-day scenario…

You are told that the Soviets and NATO have taken to leaving each other alone off Norway so long as the latter doesn’t attack anything within 100nm of the coast.

Various daily briefing messages will be received at 12:00, 18:00 and 23:00Z each day.

Word is that the Soviet Northern Fleet might be about to sortie after their long absence. Chances are that they will deploy two CVBGs, each consisting of a carrier (Kuznetsov and Varyag), BCGN (Nakhimov and Kirov), Slava CG and a couple of Sovremennys, Udaloys and Krivaks. Such forces will rely on long-ranged supersonic missiles, as they lack attack planes.

Light naval units and supply ships can be expected in coastal areas off Norway.

Somewhat unbelievably, despite their huge losses in the war to-date, the Soviets are believed to have 90-120 subs left (even if about 30 have been dug-up from mothballs)!!. Remember that we have just six in this scenario. I can’t believe that they’re going to use anywhere near that many, but there will be plenty, including up to five Oscars and one or more Charlies. Frankly, if the USSR had that many subs, plus the ones they’ve lost and had used them in 20-strong wolf-packs from Day 1, they would have swept us from the seas by now, surrounding our task forces and then closing-in, firing torpedoes at kinematic range to overwhelm us, with the Oscars there to mop-up. It would have cost them, but I can see no effective defence. Here’s hoping they don’t try it now…

The sub threat includes at least one Yankee Notch with Sampson land-attack cruise missiles. As most of our ports are single-unit ones with 50,000DP, the most likely target for this is Reykjavik, which has vulnerable piers and civilian shipping which isn’t allowed to leave.

On top of this, there is the ever-present threat of a Backfire/Badger/Blinder strike with Kitchens from the Kola (and we can already see what we pray is just a Backfire recon type over Tromso at the scenario start).

The usual range of SAMs can be expected defending land targets, should we feel compelled to attack them and there are also some Scarab and Styx batteries along the Norwegian coast, which we can probably steer clear of.

So, what to do?

While Missions had been pre-set for each of the nine Patrol Zones, I saw no need to assign anything to them. The key to scoring was (I assumed) having the required carrier or other ship in the specified Zone, not assigned to its Mission.

The Briefing warned that nothing should be N of Phase Line Alpha without an escort. Perhaps this meant that there were no Soviet subs S of that line, but I certainly wasn’t counting on it, particuarly given the issue with Turbulent. Escorts had to be provided and priority had to be given to Northern Light and Marshfield.

It didn’t look possible to maintain task groups in all nine Zones if we had to re-fuel, because there simply weren’t enough suitable task groups. It seemed best to re-fuel as seldom as possible, which really meant that all task groups in holding positions had to stop, thereby using no fuel and optimising their sonar for good measure.

Given our relative lack of offensive capability due to the munitions shortage, it seemed wise to attack only when there was a clear advantage. Re-taking Jan Mayen was, on the face of it, such a prospect.

To be honest, I could see no great need for tanker aircraft, so took the minumum five KC-135s from each base. We also had some VC.10s. Quite a few Vikings were on tanker loadouts, but it appeared greatly preferable to have them re-ready as ASW planes, instead (this takes four hours).

There was no initial clarity about what the B-52s would be needed for, so I held-off on requesting any until this changed.

In general, it was desirable to get the scattered, often lightly defended or undefended support ships out of harm’s way as quickly as possible. Those close to ports were sent to them and everything else except Northern Light was told to converge on Reykjavik, where our Orions and their assembled escorts could look after them.

In detail:

The submarine picket-line would hold position.

Ark Royal would hold in Zone MIKE, but pull back if Russian CVBGs approached.

Similarly, Clemenceau would take Zone NOVEMBER, pulling back as needed for self-preservation.

Enterprise would hold Zone PAPA and Roosevelt Zone OSCAR (significant?), staying close to each other for mutual support.

Mount Whitney and Virginia would move closer together in Zone DELTA.

Nimitz would take Zone LIMA.

TG Milwaukee would move S of Phase Line Alpha, initially to Reykjavik.

Onondaga would maintain her course, potentially scouting for the operations off Greenland and Jan Mayen.

Carl Vinson would move between Jan Mayen and the area of the Greenland operation, generally acting as a strategic reserve.

TG Exeter would head a long way S to escort TG Argus/Jeanne d’Arc as the latter moved towards Jan Mayen.

TG De Ruyter would seek to join-up with USS Worden and the oiler Gold Rover.

TG Kalamazoo would head around SE Iceland and on to Reykjavik.

Invincible would remain in Zone GOLF.

TG Supply would head for Reykjavik, as would Beskytteren, Patuxent, Fort Victoria, the oiler Joshua Humphreys and TG Seattle.

The SSN Groton was ordered to continue on her pre-set course towards Jan Mayen, where her TLAMs might be put to use.

TG Raleigh was to proceed as planned for the Greenland exercise.

Detroit would simply dock at the Clyde until needed. Similarly, Kanewha would head for Plymouth, Amsterdam for Portsmouth and Benjamin Isherwood for Rota.

TG Algonquin would take responsibility for Marshfield and the oiler Henry Eckford. Marshfield would reverse course to meet them. Once together the convoy could go to Reykjavik.

Northern Light would head back S initially, to join the Kennedy CVBG, which would escort her to the Clyde before going into strategic reserve.

Paul Foster would link with the oiler Leroy Grumman, then escort her to Reykjavik.

Finally, TG Foch would collect Fort Austin and take her to Plymouth before moving to one of the Anglo-French Zones.

Orion and Sentry patrols would be maintained at Reykjavik, the latter to give early warning of any Sampson strike. Hopefully, we could assemble lots of defenders with SAMs before that happened.

Lossiemouth sent an Orion and Nimrod to escort Supply and Kalamazoo. Hopefully, they would arrive in time.
Similarly, Reykjavik sent an Orion to keep TG Milwaukee company.

As the Briefing had suggested ELINT patrols in Zones PAPA and LIMA, Roosevelt and Enterprise covered the former with Shadows and Lossiemouth and Reykjavik the latter with a Nimrod and Aries.

The French carrier groups lacked AEW aircraft, so Super Etendards with tanker loadouts were used as stopgaps (they have 200nm multi-purpose radars).

A lot of carrier aircraft held-off on assigning loadouts until the first set of tasking orders was received at 12:00Z, four hours after the start of the scenario.

It wasn’t initially possible to assign any British or French carriers to Zones HOTEL or KILO. Possibly, these could be fall-back Zones for Ark Royal and Clemenceau, should they be forced to withdraw from MIKE and NOVEMBER, or Foch could move to one in due course.

All right, ready to go...

[Gunner98]

Looking forward to this one.

Unfortunate that the fuel for ships must have been reset during one of the DB upgrades. The reduced fuel levels of the CVBG escorts would force you to make a few more decisions and set up a rotation of the US carriers over time.

B

[fitzpatv]

Unfortunate, as you say. As you know, I prefer to play scenarios as designed. Under the circumstances, I guess I'll have to allow the AI the points it has been awarding itself (at 10 a time) for sinking neutral Norwegian fishing boats.

I'm just over halfway through Day 1, but I won't finish this stage before I go on a trip to Poland for a week, then a few days in London. If I have time, I'll post an interim report before I go, otherwise it will be a little while.

[fitzpatv]

Day 1

18/3/94 08:00Z: Turbulent was actually fine – no idea what the Out of Comms notification was about. I sent her to Creep parallel to the Norwegian coast.

The Russians fired on and sank five Neutral fishing boats off Norway, wasting 4 Styxes and 8 Shipwrecks, then gleefully claimed 50VP. It seemed that there was an Oscar lurking somewhere in the Northern Fjords. Enterprise and Roosevelt scrambled eight F-14s before realising that it was a false alarm.

09:00Z: TG De Ruyter joined-up with Gold Rover and they moved to rendezvous with USS Worden.

Ula found and sank a Tango for 75VP. A Mail came to investigate, so the Norwegian SSK dove deep at Creep.

10:00Z: The Mail lost the scent. Proceeding ENE, Ula found a few fishing boats and used WRA to ‘safe’ her weapons against such vessels, just in case.

11:00Z: Detroit reached Faslane and docked.

12:00Z: The first FRAGO Briefing requested an Alpha Strike on Bodo ‘if possible’. It wasn’t (going to happen)!.
Operations off Greenland (Wolf Dance) and Jan Mayen (Baby Ice) were to go ahead and more details would follow. USS Worden was to go to Norfolk, Virginia. USS Groton was to relieve USS Boston, while HMS Turbulent was to do the same for Trafalgar. Boston and Trafalgar were to go to Faslane for re-fits once relieved. Gold Rover was supposed to go to Plymouth within 96 hours.

Accordingly, I ordered De Ruyter to escort Gold Rover and Worden S of Phase Line Alpha, at which point they could make their separate ways to their destinations. Groton and Turbulent were told to move as ordered.

The Dutch oiler Amsterdam docked at Portsmouth.

An SSN was then detected NE of Enterprise’s screen. Unfortunately, it was an Alfa and, moving at 1,000’ below the waves, was able to dive below successive torpedoes’ engagement floors before they could reach it. At least it could only attack at a depth of 328’ or less.

TG Foch collected Fort Austin and headed, in the first instance, for Plymouth to drop her off.

13:00Z: The Alfa hunt continued for another hour, with the sub so far evading 12 torpedoes. Even using WRA to tell the Viking or chopper not to fire until it was right on top of the SSN didn’t work as, when I didn’t get told that it was out of DLZ range (too deep at -1,000’?) it was still able to to out-dive the tinfish. I concluded that I would need to get it to come to attack depth before I could kill it and it seemed safer to keep its head down while getting Enterprise and Roosevelt further out of its way. The Alfa has relatively poor sonar but, since we were obliged to stay inside our designated Patrol Zones, this threatened to run and run if the sub had similar ideas. It was a PITA.

I noticed that the Russians had, so far, ditched three Flankers, but Soviet air losses score nothing in this one.

14:00Z: The briefing arrived for Wolf Dance and Baby Ice. NATO’s plan was to create ASW bases near the village of Ittoqqortoormit in East Central Greenland and on Jan Mayen, which had been evacuated by the enemy. Aurora MPAs, readying at Gander in Newfoundland, would later move to Keflavik and add a third point to this ASW triangle.

TG Argus/Jeanne d’Arc was to go to Jan Mayen and stay within 25nm for 48 hours, landing choppers and supplies, before heading to Reykjavik. Amsterdam was to supplement this by delivering four SH-14D Lynxes.

Similarly, TG Raleigh was to go to Wolf Dance and the icebreaker Amundsen would then smash a way through the pack ice to the Inuit village. The task force needed to remain for 48 hours, then head for St John’s, Newfoundland (though they wouldn’t get there before game-end). Escort USS Caron needed to be at Reykjavik by the end of the scenario, whereas Amundsen and the freighter Federal Tempo had to stay at Wolf Dance. The oiler Preserver (with TG Seattle) would follow-up by delivering four CH-124 and CH-146 choppers and a UH-46D would also need to be delivered by either Seattle or her companion, Concord.

The little Danish corvette Beskytteren was to patrol the Greenlandic coast with her chopper and could optionally be joined by the corvette Vaedderen (with Raleigh).

Once the bases were established, ASW and MPA patrols could be set-up. Argus would later be charged with getting supplies to Jan Mayen, using two Wessexes currently at Reykjavik, while Jeanne d’Arc’s Super Puma would do a similar run to Wolf Dance.

Amsterdam accordingly left Portsmouth and headed for Iceland to begin-with.

The support ships Nitro, Concord and Merrimack were detached from TG Seattle and headed into Reykjavik, while Seattle and Preserver, escorted by the Canadian frigate Ottawa, moved to rendezvous with Raleigh, keeping S of Line Alpha. Beskytteren had just arrived in Faxafloi and, for now, loitered outside the harbour as a ‘pit canary’.

All Hell then broke loose!.

A Victor II attacked TG Foch off Portugal, proving that there were, indeed, enemy subs S of Phase Line Alpha and that nowhere was safe. It ambushed and sank the weak frigate Commandant Bouan for -100VP and, although French choppers took revenge, proved to be worth just 75.

Simultaneously (how does the game do it?), a Kilo ambushed TG Argus, sinking another obsolete frigate, Argonaut, which didn’t even have any ASW weapons – her chopper could not get airborne in time and was also lost for -5VP. A French helicopter sank the SSK but, again, we finished points-down.

While this was going on, Roosevelt’s ASW planes had somehow managed to hit the Alfa, but it stubbornly refused to sink and could still dive to -2,297’. However, its speed was now reduced and it could no longer do so as quickly. By waiting until it had come-up to -1,000’, then altering WRA so as not to fire until I was very close, I finally succeeded in finishing it off, though it was only worth the same 75VP as the Tango.

None of this was helped by the long-standing bug that re-sets ASW aircraft NOT to ignore their plotted course when attacking, then puts them on a course away from the sub. The only solution is to alter that course and re-set the Doctrine as many times as necessary.

The Russians weren’t finished yet!. A Victor III followed-up on TG Argus, launching multiple Kit WH torpedoes at kinematic range. These weapons can do 50 knots for 27nm, do not need wire guidance (or even the parent sub) and home onto a target’s wake, making them very difficult to avoid (they can even reverse course to attack on their own initiative). This didn’t help the Victor much, as the French choppers disposed of it, but it only cost the USSR 75VP and the Kits (name means ‘Whales’, apparently) did for another feeble escort, the Amyot d’Inville, for 100VP and also damaged Argus herself. Fortunately, no aircraft were lost, she got her damage under control quickly and could still do 14 knots.

In case this wasn’t enough, a second Kilo then stole into Faxafloi before being rumbled by a sonobuoy, sending the supply ships Savannah and Mount Baker hurrying for the shoreline. Fortunately, this Soviet skipper was on the dozy side and stayed at Creep long enough for an Orion to lift-off and put paid to him.

Overall, in the space of an hour the Russians had lost 3 SSNs and 2 SSKs for three old frigates and a chopper, but this left us just 70VP up overall. It was worth noting that the forces ambushed were those moving at Cruise – those holding still had seen the attackers coming.

15:00Z: Marshfield linked-up with TG Algonquin and now waited for the oiler Henry Eckford.

I narrowly saved a Viking from Nimitz, which had gone Unassigned and reverted to Re-fuelling Allowed before crazily heading to do so from Clemenceau’s tanker Etendard, which was on AEW duty, the latter abandoning its post to meet the ASW plane halfway, putting both planes in jeopardy. Happily, I had time to conduct a partial re-fuelling and then got both planes to safety.

Clemenceau was a concern, the TG having very few sonobuoy-capable choppers and no AEW apart from the tanker, BUT there was no other Anglo-French carrier that could take her station.

17:00Z: TG Algonquin collected Henry Eckford and set course for Reykjavik.

18:00Z: Paul Foster rendezvoused with the oiler Leroy Grumman and, likewise, made for Iceland.

An INTREP arrived. The Soviets were re-organising in Norway, moving another division in from the Kola. Frankly, it was hard to see the amphibious landing plan working, given enemy strength and our logistical situation.

Two Oscars were believed to be between Greenland and Spitzbergen. If so, Ark Royal and Clemenceau were in a precarious position.

It was understood that another 40 Backfires had arrived to boost the Soviet anti-shipping threat from the Kola. Here we were, struggling to scrape a few AGM-84s together and they could launch shoals of far superior Kitchens at us. I could only see the war ending with the Russians holding onto their territorial gains, then maybe building-up for another go, as their war economy was much better prepared than ours.

Under the circumstances, I pulled Enterprise, Roosevelt, Ark Royal and Clemenceau back at Creep, aiming to get them all as far away as possible from the Soviets while staying within their designated Patrol Zones. It might just help us to intercept the Backfires before they got into firing range, lessening their ability to operate entirely within the Russian IADS in North Norway. It also put distance between Ark Royal, Clemenceau and the Oscars.

While I was about it, I optimised the escorts’ speed, as some had been pre-set to move faster than Creep, to the detriment of their sonar. I also discovered that the Enterprise and Roosevelt groups had some ships set to Active radar at individual ship level and I was only able to overrule this by ticking their ‘Obeys EMCON’ boxes on the Sensors window, one by one.

JFK collected Northern Light and her precious cargo and set course for the Clyde.

19:00Z: Neutral fishing boats were still being sunk, some by mines, scoring the USSR 90VP so far.

20:00Z: The weather changes periodically and it now veered from clear to low clouds and light rain. Parts of the map apparently had temperatures of 33 Celsius – there’s global warming, but this was ridiculous that far N in March!.

A total of 275VP were scored for occupying Patrol Zones, making it +80 overall and a Major Defeat.

Ula had found a quiet fjord, away from the enemy Mails’ ASW search zones and adopted a policy of re-charging her batteries under cover of darkness. As there were mines about, it made sense to move her as little as possible.

Just as things were looking up, a Victor II ambushed Seattle, Preserver and Ottawa W of Iceland. An Orion was on its way to the area, but couldn’t get there in time. Preserver launched two Heltas choppers and USS Groton, which was nearby but didn’t spot the Soviet sub in advance, loosed two torpedoes from distance. The Victor was sunk, but her Kits dealt with Preserver and three choppers on-board for a devastating -515VP. Seattle and Ottawa had both detached from the task group and fled on divergent courses, thereby getting out of the way.

That wasn’t the end of it, though!. An Akula I had been following the Victor and latched onto Seattle, which never had a chance. A bug prevented any VP loss for the AOE and her four loaded choppers and four LCVPs. The Orion and a Heltas engaged and hit the SSN, which did not immediately sink, but surfaced, immunising itself from air-launched torpedoes and using its Gremlin, which fortunately missed the Canadian chopper twice. Groton had two torpedoes on the way and these would have been able to hit, but the Akula capsized before they arrived. By now, the score was becoming irrelevant, as the brutal scoring schedule had been skewed by various bugs. It seemed best for my good humour simply to play on and ignore it.

To be honest, I’d been mad to even attempt the Wolf Dance and Jan Mayen operations, but decided I’d persist in the name of sportsmanship.

21:00Z: An ELINT Shadow had identified emissions from three enemy corvettes off Spitzbergen, where the Russians seemed to be building-up a base via Curl supply flights. I decided to do something about this and launched two Harpoon Hornets from Enterprise to tackle the ships, while also firing a TLAM each at two radars on Bear Island and another rock S of Spitzbergen. As fighters scrambled from Barentsburg, an ‘object not set to instance of object’ error crashed the game.

I re-started at 21:00Z, re-did a lot of actions and studiously avoided repeating the Spitzbergen attacks. However, at 21:30Z, the error recurred, though I managed to squeeze in a save before the resultant crash.

22:00Z: At 22:02Z, the crash happened again, with the same symptoms. There was no point in continuing and that was that. Shame, but there it is...

In an scenario of this complexity, I guess that it’s all too easy for little coding errors to creep in and create this kind of trouble (though I haven’t a clue how Lua works). The game has, of course, changed a lot since the series was written, which can’t have helped. It would be best to leave this one well alone until Bart has had time to take a good look at it (and maybe soften the scoring system while doing so).

[tylerblakebrandon]

Nice AAR as usual. Sorry to see crashes spoil the rest. However I had a laugh at my own expense as I kept reading Baby ICE as Baby Spice.