New Scenario for Testing NF #41 Tour de Force

[serjames]

wowo... how did I miss this one... It's taken me 3 hours just to read the thread. Do my normal Unit / loadouts / available assets check.. and I haven't even set up any missions let alone pressed the Play button.. Sheesh

[Gunner98]

Yes, its big but with a lot of diversions

[Gunner98]

Hay guys, has anyone got any further points on this one? Will put it up on the Community pack this coming weekend otherwise.

[Gunner98]

OK this one is a wrap.

Thanks for all your help on this one guys

[alghblag]

Finally found time to play the finished version of this one. I'm not doing very well at it, but that's my problem of course. Just want to congratulate you on a very large scenario very well done!

[Gunner98]

Thank you.

Enjoy

[Gunner98]

AndrewJ

Just thought I would let you know - I've gone through and cut your playtest reports into a word document, eventually they will all be on my webpage.

The report for Tour de Force is 30 pages long! [&o][&o]

[AndrewJ]

Must be very small pages! (Or large font, wide margins, tall header and footer, a little bit of extra space in the kerning - just like an old essay assignment. [:D])

[robertqin]

Just finished this scenario yesterday. It’s one of my favorite and I love the length and scale!

There are a few things I noticed. Perhaps some tips and tricks to other people playing this wonderfully crafted scenario. Some are comments on some of the designs, but I believe the scenario is final and I don’t expect any changes,

The file on the front page does not seem to be the latest one which is on this page. I played the one on the front page as I found the one on this page too late.

1. A lot of nasty sub surprises! Don’t let your ships go alone without ASW. A gamey way to get around: subs are slow and have very small detection range, so often the author would place them on the pre set route of surface ships. To get around, just give a little detour to all of your ships at the start of the game and you can avoid most of the subs.

2. I recall reading in the briefing that we are allowed 96 TLAMs (around 10 per day). Those are very valuable! I used them to kill S300s. With enemy AEW down and some terrain masking, I am able to surprise them before their OODA count down is finished.

3. An inherent flaw (or maybe WAD) of the game. I can tell what the enemy ground contact is just by how many units they have (that number next to their icon). For example, 10 or 11 is S300 variants, 7 is aaa, 3 is buk, 6 is Kub. Same for aircrafts radars. A2A short range is Mig23 or Su15. Mid range is Mig29, Su27/33, or Mig25. Long range is Mig31

4. U2 is really overpowered. I don’t really need any aircraft to flyover the recon areas to know exactly what’s down there. It is actually pretty dangerous to have any aircraft, including U2 to do the flyover. The trigger is an area which I don’t think is very ideal given how different recon platforms perform. I am thinking whether the trigger can be detection based. For example detection of a specific marker unit.

5. On the last few days I was tasked to find logistical elements and a tank regiment (or was it a div?) south of Banak and in Finland, and later to interdict them. However they do not show up at all. I even turned on God’s eye and found nothing over there. I also checked the events and there does not seem to be spawn linked to that.

6. The fuel for the front line ships are not really a problem, as I cheesed it and just parked the ships in the PZ without moving except when I resupplying carriers.

7. I may also cheesed CVBG resupply a bit. I parked JFK below Bravo line in Lima along with all the resupply ships. I load up its ac with munitions (had to redirect some amraam capable ac to here for this trick) and fly to the front line carriers, change load out to ferry, and then fly back to be rearmed. This is actually much faster than having the frontline carrier come back. The cv most forward is 300nm away from supply ships. It will take it 40 hours just on travel, and then maybe 12 hours to resupply with Phoenix having a very low priority on automatic resupply list and an excruciatingly slow transfer rate. On the other hand my scheme takes only 7 hours for a trip with 6 ac and 24 Phoenix or 36 amraam, and JFK is being fed munitions at all time. I also used this trick to put all amraam b on ark royal without it ever moving.

8. I did not check every carrier but at least Vinson and JFK do not have naval mine entry in their magazine, and would not load them until I added such entries through editor.

9. Phoenix is not really in shortage. I have plenty of them by the end of the game. Actually I have way more of them than amraam by the end. I only use them for Mig31 and high value big planes might be the reason. On the other hand, Su27 drains my amraam really fast and I am out of resupply by the end.

10. I degraded enemy to the point that they lost all Mig31, AEW and jammers. Their AEW and jammers travel behind the SAM line in Norway. Two insertion points I found: 1. Between bodo and evens there is a gap where S300 cannot reach you. Enemy Mig31 can only come from far east which gave you some time to deal with HVT. Con is that Barduoss can respond with Su27. 2. North Cape after taking out Mig31 patrolling there. Their replacement takes a while to get there from Northern Fleet HQ. Con is that there are some Mig31 in Banak and it is very close to Su27 CAP from HQ. After constantly degrading Mig31 and a few hit and run forays I took out all the HVT and it seems the enemy only have very limited replacements which I exhausted.

[Gunner98]

I'll update the first post so it has the latest file.

Glad you like the scenario, the updated version will be more of a challenge for you I think.

Although the shuttle resupply of munitions would likely be a viable option, I don't think parking ships in one spot is something that would happen. Rotating carriers is critical in real ops for other items not modeled in the game such as rations, aviation fuel, spare parts, replacement personnel etc.

The limited mines is by design, they are buried in one of the AORs down south, forces you to either conduct a forward replen or engage the B-52s

Identifying units by radar signature etc is the way the game works and is not unrealistic. Perhaps identifying ground units is a bit too easy but I suppose I could screw up those numbers by adding vehicles and things. Will think on that.

Thanks for the report.

[robertqin]

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

I'll update the first post so it has the latest file.

Glad you like the scenario, the updated version will be more of a challenge for you I think.

Although the shuttle resupply of munitions would likely be a viable option, I don't think parking ships in one spot is something that would happen. Rotating carriers is critical in real ops for other items not modeled in the game such as rations, aviation fuel, spare parts, replacement personnel etc.

The limited mines is by design, they are buried in one of the AORs down south, forces you to either conduct a forward replen or engage the B-52s

Identifying units by radar signature etc is the way the game works and is not unrealistic. Perhaps identifying ground units is a bit too easy but I suppose I could screw up those numbers by adding vehicles and things. Will think on that.

Thanks for the report.

Thank you for your reply!

I admit parking CVBG is a bit cheesy, so I still rotate them back from time to time for resupply especially on bombs, HARM and Harpoons. I only did shuttle ferry on regular AAM (especially Phoenix) and emergency resupply of harpoon after the first engagement with enemy CVBG.

For the naval mines, I was talking about that loading them up to the CV had a problem. AOR mount baker has the mines, but the CV does not seem to take them when resupplying as they do not have entries of the mines in their magazine. I added entries of the naval mines to the CV magazine (the 0/80 one so the CV has the entry but no actual mines) and the CV then started receiving mines from AOR.

[Gunner98]

For the naval mines, I was talking about that loading them up to the CV had a problem. AOR mount baker has the mines, but the CV does not seem to take them when resupplying as they do not have entries of the mines in their magazine. I added entries of the naval mines to the CV magazine (the 0/80 one so the CV has the entry but no actual mines) and the CV then started receiving mines from AOR.

Ahhh OK, good point and an easy fix for an update. I'll try and get that fixed and upload a new file by the weekend.

Cheers

B

[robertqin]

Also for the identifying units via radar signature part, I worded my point very badly which might have led to confusion. I think the flaw is only on the “identifying ground contact by how many units they have” part, not the A2A radar part. I threw in the latter as another tip while I was composing the former but did not make it a separate point. The latter is totally realistic. For the former, adding some more mounts to confuse the player would definitely work! I recall in one of the Iceland scenarios from NF, some of the S300 have extra ammo in their store, which really threw me off as I sent in strike ac while thinking they were out of ammo (I counted how many missiles they spent and cross referenced the DB for this)

I will try the latest version after I finish all the other scenarios from your series! I really love them.