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INTERMISSION

As the last of my planes continue home, nervously eyeing their dwindling fuel reserves, a Japanese F-15 makes an aggressive afterburner run from behind, forcing some of my Su-27s to turn around and pry him off. They manage to do it, but a few are so short on fuel that they have to land early at Maygatka, rather than making it all the way home. More and more Japanese fighters start showing up on radar, and its not long before the last of my planes are forced out of Japanese airspace. Most head home for refuelling, and only the surveillance planes and a few MiG-23s remain up on patrol.

As the enemy fighters accumulate, six more un-recognized contacts appear, and head north. Four of them turn out to be F-1A attack planes, and my radar operators track them as they start making passes over the merchant ships in the La Perouse strait. Fortunately, my flotilla of small ships is still sheltering near the SA-10 battery on the SE tip of Sakhalin Island, so the enemy does not spot them, and soon flies home. The other two contacts turn out to be P-3s, and they’re flying up the west coast of Hokkaido and heading for the straits too. These definitely merit a response, and a pair of MiG-23s hurries in to knock them down before running away from the F-15s.

Speaking of naval matters, my maritime surveillance helicopters are continuing to check out suspicious-looking ship contacts out east (basically, anything moving quickly), but so far nothing seems dangerous. AEW radar does spot another stationary warship far down the west coast of Hokkaido, which seems to be some sort of patrol craft. It’s just within Sepal range, so a few missiles are sent its way. Unfortunately, it easily decoys them all with chaff, so we cease fire, and pretend it was never worth engaging anyway. Besides, we may have something else to do with our Sepals anyway…


HUNTING AT SEA

At this point my air liaison officer announces that the MiG-29s at Yuzhno-Sakalinsk are coming on-line, and can now provide cover for operations in the La Perouse strait. My ships are ordered back into the straits, which they do a little timidly, with minesweepers leading. They’re also joined by minesweeping helicopters and ASW helicopters, and together they’ll hunt for any underwater intruders hanging out in the restricted waters. With AEW nearby and fighters overhead, I hope they’ll be able to withstand any pop-up Harpoon attacks from lurking SSKs.


HUNTING EAGLES

My MiG-23s over in the Kurile Islands want to do some hunting of their own, and they’ve been eyeing the Japanese F-15s which have been operating over northern Hokkaido. The AMRAAM-equipped F-16s further south are too dangerous, but the Eagles seem like fair game if treated carefully. They’re mostly operating as a couple of pairs, so we start launching eight-plane attacks, feinting and running away with the first four MiGs, and then closing for the kill with the second four. It actually works quite well, and my pilots claim over a dozen kills for minor losses. A few of the MiG-29s get in on the action too, although I’m trying to keep them out of the fight for now, since they have no reloads at their forward base. Congratulatory messages go out to all the pilots, since their efforts will have significantly cleared the way for the dawn strike.




COMING DAWN…

Speaking of dawn, the clock is ticking away faster than I would like. My Su-24s and Fitters have just completed their loading process, and staff are doing the final review of the strike timeline. Launches are expected to begin shortly. Do the Japanese have a spoiling attack in the works? Have we spotted all their defences? Dawn will tell.

The calm before the storm!

Yes those Mig-29s have some limited ammo choices.

I think I'll back the F1s off by an hour or so to make it more interesting, but then they tangle with the Mig-29s... oh bother...

A weekend’s always more enjoyable with a little Command!

FINAL PREPARATIONS

As the last of our planes are readied, the pilots review their targeting information and launch schedules, and then settle in to endure the last tense hours before commencing the attack. Most of our planes have no night-vision capability, so the plan is for the strike to arrive as early as possible in the full light of day, so the attack planes can actually see their targets. Until then, all they can do is wait.

In the meantime, skirmishing continues over NW Hokkaido, as two more separate pairs of F-15s fall to a four-ship of MiG-23s out of Iturup, unfortunately taking one of my planes with them. Some of my Fencers, hastily launched with ferry tanks and nothing else, also conduct some last-minute radar-reconnaissance off the south end of Hokkaido, looking for more enemy ships. Nothing turns up, but they do detect signals from an E-2 orbiting in the area, and are forced to flee at high speed and low altitude when some F-16s come to investigate.


ADVANCE ON CHITOSE

The carefully timed attack on Chitose commences with multiple streams of fighters lifting off from all my bases: Su-27s, MiG-29s, and MiG-23s. They converge on Chitose, expecting a fierce fight to clear the skies before the strike arrives, but the skies are empty. Nobody’s there… Some of the Su-27s pass around Chitose, and finally find some F-16s to skirmish with south of Hokkaido, eventually chasing them all the way back to Misawa. Our missiles always fall a little short, and we have to abandon the futile pursuit when a HAWK opens fire and drives us off.

In the meantime, my attack planes are en-route, lead by ARM-carrying Fencers and Fitters, followed by long-range (AS-18) and short-ranged (AS-10) PGM carriers, and then Fitters with cluster bombs and heavy rockets. This first SEAD wave is followed by more iron bomb and rocket-carrying attackers, who will hit the soft airfield infrastructure, and then crucially important LGB-carrying Su-24s, who must shut the runways and taxiways to complete the destruction of the base.

The last aircraft to launch have no pilots at all. The 451st independent Coastal Missile and Artillery Brigade turns its launch keys and fires the last four Sepal anti-ship missiles on bearing-only attacks at Chitose! These massive 30-foot-long missiles will act like high-speed decoys, hopefully prompting the SAM gunners in Chitose to open fire, without risking my aircrew to do so. That will give all those ARMs I’m carrying something to shoot at.


STRIKE!

The first shots actually come from a pair of Fencers, firing a salvo of AS-17 ARMs at the Nike site at Yakumo, on the narrow south-western ‘neck’ of Hokkaido. The Nike’s not the most modern SAM any more, but it’s still dangerous enough to restrict maneuver on that flank, and it gives good radar coverage to the enemy. As my missiles roar in the Nike turns on its illuminators – and so does every single other SAM site in the Chitose area! So much for my clever plan to trick them with Sepals…

I’m looking at four active HAWK sites, and two, no, three smaller SAM sites of some sort, all clustered around Chitose. My Fencers deliver a barrage of long-ranged AS-9s and AS-17 ARMs, plus low-altitude AS-18 cruise missiles. Some of these manage to punch through the SAM defences, wounding some, but not all, of the SAM sites. The Sepals arrive, hurtling into the confusion, and some of the smaller SAM sites open fire on them, wasting a number of missiles, and giving a little bit of time for the Fitters to launch their short-ranged AS-12 ARMs.

Most of the radars go down, and AS-10-armed Fitters start engaging from medium altitude, others come dashing in as low as they can to strike the battered defences with cluster bombs and rockets. But we’ve kicked the hornet’s nest, and now the air is full of Stingers! It’s not a good day to be a Fitter pilot, and swarms of the nasty little MANPADS start knocking planes out of the sky. I’m deeply regretting the choice not to load every AS-10 I could, but my brave pilots use what they have. Many of them are carrying huge 266mm rockets, with massive 150 kg warheads, and their crushing impacts turn out to be superb against the dismounted SAM gunners. Mixed in with all this chaos, Vulcans start blazing away, sending ropes of tracer towards my twisting planes.

It’s a horrible mess, and in a couple of short minutes I’ve lost six Fitters and had two more damaged, and almost all of them are my most modern M-3s which were leading the assault. But, the weight of a Soviet assault is an implacable force, and so many planes arrive that the defences are overwhelmed. The LGB-carrying Fencers fly over, and their massive penetrating bombs systematically wreck the runways and taxiways from safe altitude, while streams of lesser Fitters continue to pummel hangars, fuel tanks, and other structures, until the base is a flaming wreck.




FALL BACK

Only now do the enemy start to respond, as we detect radars on F-16s approaching from the south. The last of my attackers drop their bombs and hurry north at low altitude, joining the stream of planes retiring to their bases. As they go, a flight of Fitters finally sinks that patrol boat (a hydrofoil, no less) with a brace of AS-7s, and four Fencers strike the southern ELINT station with heavy 3,000lb iron bombs. (That turns out to be completely ineffective, and the ELINT station remains fully operational for the remainder of the operation.)

Does the approach of the F-16s finally mean my pilots descend on them and engage boldly? Well, no. Almost all my fighters are very low on fuel now, far from home, and poorly positioned to engage. Most of them are forced to withdraw. Eight enemy planes are coming in, and that’s a lot of AMRAAMs for the remainder to face. Fortunately, four of them actually turn out to be attack planes headed north at a really bad time, and my MiG-23s manage to take them in the flank and destroy them, but we only manage to kill one of the F-16s, at the cost of one of our own. The rest disengage south for more missiles, while we’re forced north again when we detect more new F-16s coming in.

Meanwhile, some Su-27s on the flank overfly the damaged Nike site to snipe a reckless E-2, before running away again, and fresh MiG-29s are called south to cover our retreat. Angry F-16s are headed north at supersonic speeds, closing in on our retreating planes who don’t have the fuel to outrun them. The MiGs manage to arrive just in time to concentrate a 3:1 numerical superiority, and this time, when we have plenty of fuel and the F-16s do not, we finally manage to achieve some decisive kills.


REASSIGNMENTS

At 22:00Z our liaison officer salutes the Deputy Commander of the 1st Red Banner Air Army of the VVS, and reports that the Su-24 regiment 302nd BAP has been returned to VVS control as planned. He thanks the Deputy Commander for the VVS’s support for their comrades in arms in the fleet, neglects to mention that the 302nd is actually somewhere over the Sea of Japan, low on fuel, and out of ordnance, and tactfully retires before questions can be asked.

We also have a number of fighters and strike planes bumping down on the wrong airfields all around the theatre, wherever their fuel-starved engines can reach. Lingering on station, chasing down F-16s and outrunning AMRAAMs has taken a heavy toll in fuel. It’s well into the afternoon before all the planes are finally ferried back to their home bases and readied for use again. Some MiG-29 pilots are also assigned to do shuttle runs back to Khabarovsk, where the remainder of their munitions are stored, and then return to the front lines with full loadouts.


LOW-LEVEL HOSTILITIES

The next hours pass at a lower level of hostilities. We hear reports of furious fighting involving the Americans and our comrades to the south in Vladivostok, but fortunately the American navy isn’t active here. Our ships continue to patrol and hunt for mines in the La Perouse strait, but other than some puzzling biological contacts, nothing shows up on sonar.

Shortly before noon the Japanese attempt a strike on our forward base in the Kurile Islands, but the attack planes don’t have any escorts. MiG-23s from Iturup are able to pounce on the strike while it’s still over Hokkaido, and they destroy it without any losses. Our disguised refuelling ship would have made a vulnerable target if they had gotten through, and it is a relief when it finally completes its task and starts sailing north again after lunch.

Our own air activity is kept low key. Su-27s snipe the second E-2, and a few Fitters bomb the remains of the southern Nike site before it can repair itself, but that is the extent of our offensive action. Our ESM planes detect the emissions of patrolling F-16s from Misawa, but I’m reluctant to go so far south and tangle with them where they have the advantage. Instead, we patrol, monitor the situation, and let our pilots rest to prepare for the next stage of our glorious revolution!


Thanks for another excellent scenario!

PLAY IMPRESSIONS

It’s fun to be on the Soviet side from time to time, and give a nice mass-attack thumping to the foe. This is an interesting test of timing to get all the planes from different bases to coordinate and arrive at the proper moment. The player’s got an important choice to make early on, about whether to try and sneak in an early night attack on Chitose with the existing loadouts on the Fencers, or to adjust their loadouts, wait for morning, and make a combined attack with the Fitters.

(Out of curiosity I turned off the enemy fighters and ran a night attack, to see what would happen. The result was disastrous, and the SAMs ate me alive. My recommendation? Don’t! [:D] Besides, the Fencers didn’t really have effective night-vision anyway. I tend to forget how limited night vision was for dedicated attack planes of that era. Coming out of the tail of the Cold War, if you weren’t American or British (F-111s, A-6s, Harriers, Buccaneers, pods) or carrying American IR munitions (Maverick, GBU-15, etc.) the odds were that you tended to bomb on radar, under flares, or not at all. The Soviets were rather low on the night-vision totem-pole.)

I was definitely tempted to shell out 100 points for those MiG-31s, but they were so expensive that in the end I made do without them. The other fighters were less capable and further away, and didn’t seem to be worth the cost. Those first six hours, with half my Su-27s still down, and the MiG-29s ferrying and readying, had me quite worried about my fighter strength. I had thought the F-15s would be the big threat, but it turned out to be the F-16s which were the real problem. Their AMRAAMs were much more dangerous, they were at the far end of my fighter range, and they could easily disengage and RTB where I couldn’t follow them. It was not until the end of the scenario that I started to catch them in disadvantageous positions.

It certainly felt like we were in a hasty and disorganized start, with fighters not ready or out of position, and I would have loved an hour or so of extra time for loading and launching helicopters and positioning ships. The constant worry that my comrades down south would kick things off just a little too soon made for very enjoyable opening tension.

I never saw any sign of the Japanese sub, which went to the SE corner of its zone, far out of my assigned area of operation in the straits. Still, I spent a lot of time cautiously cringing around at low speed, looking for mines and subs, worried that at any moment I might stumble on something. The mere risk of an SSK has that effect! (The player is actually quite unlikely to meet the sub. Their assigned zones only overlap by about ¼ of the sub’s area, so the sub is most likely going to be headed away from the player. If you want an encounter to be more likely I think you would need to adjust the sub’s zone.)


ASSORTED ITEMS

The Russian anti-runway cluster bombs are a bit of a misnomer, because in Command they can’t really hurt runways at all. They’ll typically only do 1 to 2% to a runway or taxiway, or about 20% to an access point. (It’ll take a full Fencer-load of 6 of them to reliably kill one access point out of the 34 at Chitose!) I’d recommend removing them from the planes and magazines, so newer players are not misled into using an ineffective loadout. (For Fencers, the heavyweight FAB-1500 iron bombs work a lot better, and of course the heavy penetrating LGBs are best of all.)

The three different loadouts on the ASW helicopters are thematic, but difficult for AI to handle on ASW patrols, since under the 1/3 rule it will try and send one of each loadout type at the same time. This tends to give a pulse of many helicopters all at once, and then almost none available, rather than a steady stream on station. In my case I edited them all to the same loadout just for AI convenience.

I had to keep reminding myself that there was a major conflict raging further south, and I should not be sending lone planes down there on sight-seeing missions or flanking moves. Maybe a mention in the briefing or a zone boundary displayed on the map (a no-nav zone, but turned off, so it doesn’t cause any flight-path calculation issues) could remind the player? (CMO could really benefit from a basic markup layer for this sort of thing.)

For the ELINT stations, it might be interesting to have a message that pops up when the station takes enough damage. (“Looks like the antennae have been destroyed on this one, sir”, etc.) In my case, I noticed the scoring event in the message log, but if players have that turned off, they may not realize when they have accomplished their objective.

The briefing mentions that there is ammunition waiting for the MiG-29s at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, but there are not actually enough AA-11s to equip all the fighters. Maybe indicate in the briefing that there is only enough ammo for some of them? Then the player can take the time to load some of the MiG-29s at Khabarovsk and bring the ammo with them. (Or maybe have a portion of them already loading at the start of the game?)

The briefing also mentions the An-12 resupply ferry, and I had thought it would be bringing more munitions. Maybe have it Lua-in a few missiles each time it arrives?

I got the message saying the refuelling ship was finished and could retire, but wasn’t certain where it was supposed to go. (Maybe Korsakov? I sent it up towards Iturup.) Perhaps that could be added to the message?

It might also be worth adding a mention of the 1-hour time limit for the special actions to the Side Briefing. The time limit is currently only mentioned in the special action text itself, and the player might be left thinking he could call for help at any time during the scenario if he does not happen to go to the special actions.


EVENTS, TRIGGERS, ACTIONS

The +25 action assigns the points to the US/Japan side.
The +3 action assigns the points to the US/Japan side.
The -1 action does not assign the points to a specific side. (But I see the -1 penalties in the scoring log, so I guess it works anyway.)

The Runway/Taxiway Dmged event is repeatable. This means that multiple hits on the same runway will score once it has passed the 75% level. In my case I got one extra score, but players attacking with multiple small weapons could get many more.

The Underground INT Station Dmged is also repeatable, and has the same issue as above, except this time the trigger threshold is only 15%. In my case I got numerous extra scores because I was attacking with many small satchel charges, and after I crossed the 15% threshold, each one gave me a new score. Worse, some of the stations caught fire, and the fires started scoring every few minutes. My score went up to almost 1200 before I turned the event off. To get the behaviour I think you want (each bunker scoring a maximum of once) you would need one non-repeatable event for each individual bunker (or runway).


Typos, formatting, etc.

Side briefing: ‘naval forces through “La Pirouse Strait” (Perouse, or actually Pérouse, not sure if CMO handles accents?)
Side briefing: ‘We believe that closing the Japanise’ (Japanese)
Side briefing: ‘several specialized aircraft which are not stationed at Leonidovo Airbase’ (now?)
Side briefing: ‘This is the abandond base’ (abandoned)
Side briefing: ‘Our fuel ship VY Egorlyk is disguised as’ (disguised)
Side briefing: ‘ship and well be unloaded’ (will)
Side briefing: ‘Additionaly my commander’ (additionally)
Side briefing: ‘the MiG-29s will need to move immidiatly’ (immediately)
Side briefing "In support we will run supplys into’ (supplies)
Side briefing: ‘ setting up a forward point for thier helicopters.’ (their)
Side briefing: ‘and loses will be costly.’ (losses)
Side briefing: ‘1st Red Banner Air Army of the VVS will entertain leaving 302nd BAP under your control.’ (Maybe add a mention that these are the Su-24s at Verino?)
Side briefing: ‘Note: you will recieve points’ (receive)

Special action: ‘Comrade, The 308th IAP , a MiG-23PD Regement from Sovetskaya Gavan has now been assigned to you’ (Regiment, and period at end)
Special action: ‘Comrade, The 528th IAP , a MiG-23ML Regement from Smirnykh has now been assigned to you’ (Regiment, and period at end)
Special action: ‘Comrade, A squadron from 777th IAP, a MiG-31 Regement based at Donlinsk-Sokol has now been assigned to you’ (Regiment, and period at end)

Thanks Andrew, I'll tidy that up.

My thought with the MiG-29s was to limit the A2A ammo so that the player was forced to go begging to the PVO for that task and since the MiG-29s are decent bombers they would strengthen the attack on Chitose. Not clear in the brief and since they are good A2A yours is a natural course of action.

An option is to downgrade their experience to Cadet level and give the player a warning that they have just upgraded (from Mig-23s) and to keep them away from American fighters. Or do as you suggest and provide more ammo, which makes it less likely that the PVO will get tapped for extra resources.

Do you have any thoughts on a point value which would make the PVO options palatable? Also there is a Regt of PVO Su-27s sharing the base with the VVS Su-27s. I felt that these would overpower the defenders too easily, but they might make a counterbalance to the flock of Mig-23s available.

The ASW ammunitions loadouts leans to the way I tend to use them with the Depth charge loaded craft on an ASW Strike mission to reinforce the Torp loaded patrollers. I'll change them up.

Will add more messages about the war down south and have a Nav Zone in place as well. Will put a reminder 5 min before the SAs expire.

The repeatable events can be fixed easily just need a different event and trigger for each one. Tedious to set up but reliable.

Once again, thank you for your fantastic write up and reports. PF-3 coming soon [:D]

This one was fun, I send a lightly escorted sneak attack at wavetop height to hit Misawa's runway. Three of eight Su-24 made it through - but the anti-runway munitions are rubbish! What a disappointment.

Should the US/Japan side be Veteran? Most NATO forces in the series seem to be. I was surprised at how few Japanese ships were around. Perhaps they're all at sea elsewhere on in the southern ports. The hidden SSM battery didn't fire either - do you know why? The US/Japan side had PID one of my ships that was easily within range.

Cheers Gunner.

Yes, they should be Veteran, thanks for the catch.

Probably need to adjust his doctrine once hostilities start. I had forgotten about him...

Edit: Ah yes, Japanese ships. Most are either in port or down south.

I forgot to mention that the little Sparviero hydrofoil is not assigned to a mission, and doesn't have engage opportunities on, so probably won't attack even if the player's ships get ID-ed. (The MPA did detect me at one point, lurking near Sakhalin Island, but never ID-ed me before getting shot down.)

I have to admit it never occurred to me that I was supposed to use the MiG-29s as attack planes. I have always considered them to be air superiority fighters, and far too 'good' to be used for bombing. Everyone knows chunky old Fitters and clapped-out MiG-21s do ground attack. Sleek Fulcrums do not! I clearly need to work on my preconceptions.

The thing that would definitely make me holler for the PVO would be the threat of F-14s. I'd be calling for MiG-31s in a heartbeat if I thought those were in my AO. But if the carriers are elsewhere, then that's a hard threat to justify. (And it would be unkind to threaten them in a briefing, and then not actually have them be present.)

Alternatively, I would be more tempted if I had fewer aircraft available. Perhaps readiness issues are plaguing the hasty attack, and more of my fighter aircraft are 6 or 8 or 10 hours delayed? That would make me more likely to pay for some additional help at the start.

In that situation I'd probably be willing to pay 50 for MiG-23s and 75 for MiG-31s. I think the point cost for loss of the MiG-31s might be higher. Currently its only 2, but I'd be tempted to raise it to 4, same as the other high-value aircraft.

Yeah that would work, a few more hangar queens.

The MiG-31 get triple tagged for points (1+3+2=6) for loss

The F-14 treat won't work, you've seen one CV getting pounded on in PF-1 and your about to see another one is a much trickier situation in PF-3.

I think I'll make the Mig-29s Cadet and as CHM mentioned I neglected to crank the US/Japanese up to Veteran. So that difference in quality should make a player think as well.

My read of the MiG-29 is to counter the F-16/F-18 multi-role slot with a primary on Air to mud with the Su-27s countering the F-15s in the A2A role. I think the Soviets realized how good it was and the Mig-29C is much better than the A at A2A.

Thanks again.

B

Hello,
I played this over the last couple days. I took the point hit for the MIG-31s. They were extremely effective at dealing with the F-15 threat. Easily winning most battles. On only a few occasions the AA-9 missed and the backup SU-27 would become engaged. I suffered no MIG-31 losses.

The MIG-31 radar couldn’t get a lock on the F-16 at range. I didn’t let them get within AMRAAM range.

I tried the same tactic with combined SU-24 raid as AndrewJ did, unfortunately I failed on the timing and the recall triggered while they were enroute🤦‍♂️.

I would suggest adjusting the P-3 ASuW mission. The two I spotted were flying across the mountains at altitude and radars on. They were easily dealt with by MIG-23 using Aphids.

Looks like AndrewJ addressed everything I saw.
Thanks again for another fun and interesting scenario!

Cheers Badlandz

Will fix those MPA boys.

B

OK here is an update

Fixed a bunch of stuff. Made it much more of a choice to bring on extra PVO fighters.

Cheers

Anything else on this one guys?

OK this one is a wrap

Thanks for all your help guys