F8 Crusader usage

[pirimeister]

ORIGINAL: hermanhum

Another tactic that has worked is to use the Harpoons to try and open a hole in the ASW screen so that your subs can penetrate and kill the Kiev and Slava. Otherwise, it takes a LOT of of Harpoons and other Anti-Ship Missiles [AShMs] to kill them. One torpedo usually does the job of 3-4 missiles.

I used my Exocets to creat that gap and used the remaining ones, plus the harpoons in the subs to strike the main blow, with a couple of torpedos for the "after-party" surprise[8D]. Afterwards I crash-dived the subs and bit my fingernails during the time they took to reload.I then came up to periscope depth and let rip a full Mark48 & Spearfish spread and then it was crash-dive time again, but this time with a 60º twist to escape from the area...

While I was patting myself on teh back for being such a naval genius, I saw mmy subs dissapear. First the LA class and a couple of minutes later the Brit sub. I immediatly cursed and tried to see what had happen: The russians had fired some nuclear-tipped rocket-assisted torpedos and sunk my boats. Darn!

I like playing with the nuclear option on, so I can't complain. And this was one of the best scenarios I've played so far, no doubt about it.

Just my opinion on the use of the Crusaders: I always used them as far away from my groups until all the Tu-95 were down. If you let those boys get a sniff of your position, the next thing you'll hear is "Vampire, Vampire"! So I made sure they all went down and just to be on the safe side, parked a AEW helo (radar off) between my group and the Soviet's.

Cheers!
Paulo

[hermanhum]

ORIGINAL: pirimeister

Just my opinion on the use of the Crusaders: I always used them as far away from my groups until all the Tu-95 were down. If you let those boys get a sniff of your position, the next thing you'll hear is "Vampire, Vampire"! So I made sure they all went down and just to be on the safe side, parked a AEW helo (radar off) between my group and the Soviet's.

Sounds like very solid tactics, to me. Like many land battle strategists, I also believe that the Reconnaissance / Counter-Reconnaissance battle is primary and absolutely critical. The enemy cannot kill what it cannot see! [;)]

[Stalintc]

ORIGINAL: hermanhum

ORIGINAL: pirimeister

Just my opinion on the use of the Crusaders: I always used them as far away from my groups until all the Tu-95 were down. If you let those boys get a sniff of your position, the next thing you'll hear is "Vampire, Vampire"! So I made sure they all went down and just to be on the safe side, parked a AEW helo (radar off) between my group and the Soviet's.

Sounds like very solid tactics, to me. Like many land battle strategists, I also believe that the Reconnaissance / Counter-Reconnaissance battle is primary and absolutely critical. The enemy cannot kill what it cannot see! [;)]

So the TacOps and Combat Mission play has helped me a little there

piri - that is indeed sounds advice, and it appears to have worked well for me, I have knocked down all their Tu-95's now, even one of my nimrods took one of em out. And yes those AEW aircraft have come in very handy. Cheers for the advice!

I have killed the udaloy which is one of the ships carrying those longe range missile deployed torpedos the next to go down will be the Kara, which is the other one with that capability. My submarines will have a field day with their torps when that ship goes down!

[VistaJohn1]

Hi

After reading all this tried the scenario too. I killed everything but the Kiev and two frigs. Kept the two subs separate but at max range witha abadly damaged Kiev at four knots. Fired torpedows at max range went deep and cruise at 90 degrees and sub shortly died. Repeated with Los Angeles , max depth and then full speed, same results. Had good radar coverage that warned of AAM's, but saw no asw weapons from any sensor. Don't know how I was found or what kind of weapon killed the subs. May play this in the editor to see what is happening.

VistaJohn

[VistaJohn1]

Hi again

I set an AEW northand off axis of the carrier, mixed the asw and four F8s just north of the base. Asw radar intermitant and F8s off. F16s and F8s killed everything that cime south and used the nimrods to kill the bears with pair of F8's betwwen the nimrod and Kiev group. Kill the planes sent after the Nimrod. Pinched them between the F8's short range weapons and sidewinders on Nimrod. After all the long rangeAAms were gone, kille the helo's with F8 guns. Fun! Lost 10 of the F16s and 3 F8s. Lost both subs. No other losess or damage.

F8's were great planes. Only gunfighter for the Navy in Viet Nam. F8 Pilots were used to start the Top Gun school! F8 kill ratio never feel below 6 to 1 and was close to 10 to 1 most of the time. The F4's were well under 1 to 1 with no gun. The F8 would turn with a Mig, out accllerate the F4 from a cruise to it max of 1200, and had four guns. It did not carry sidewinders until about 65/66. No radar eigther. You wanted a Mig, you had better be good at ACM and have great eyes. The Mig was a solid performer, the F4 a Mac truck in an angels fight, and the F8 was the hot spots car. Top Gun taught the use of the virtical which turned things around for the F4E. The gun pod for the earlier models always seemed to jam and was not trusted. I was on the Ticonderogia (long hull Essex class)and we only had F8's, so I always heard how great they were and most of the pilots had nothing good to say about the F4 (which no one really knew how to use at that time).

VistaJohn