Scenario 4: Salvo

[blkholsun]

ORIGINAL: Tailhook

I simply turned off the penalty for losing aircraft. It was far too steep.

It isn't just too steep, it's nonsensical. "Victory points" are by their nature a highly idealized game concept, of course, but should vaguely represent some notion of what would be considered "success" in real life terms. If China were in a shooting war with the U.S., I can only imagine they would be all too happy to trade aircraft losses with the U.S one-for-one. That would be nothing short of a tremendous victory.

[blkholsun]

ORIGINAL: Airborne Rifles

...

Then, if you've timed it right, the Patriots will be fully engaged against the cruise missiles and Kh-31Ps when you DFs hit. Your DFs should catch all the US and Japanese fighters on the runways if you do it this way (this is vital, if they get airborne they will wreak havoc on your cruise missiles). Again, doing it this way every single one of my DFs got through.

I get what you're saying, this sounds like it makes sense, but it just doesn't work that way for me and for the life of me I can't figure out why. I have a huge mass of cruise missiles and KH-31Ps all converging pretty much simultaneously--sure, give or take a handful of seconds but it is as close as I can possibly imagine getting them--and I activate the special event just as they are coming into range, I launch the DF-15s and -16s and sure enough the SM-3s don't touch them, and the defenses on Okinawa are fully engaging all of the cruise missiles... and then simultaneously fully engage the DFs and every single thing I launch is shot down, not a single successful hit.
I am begging on my hands and knees, PLEASE somebody post a video of this! I apparently am just too stupid to understand some fundamental concept here.

EDIT: So after posting this I decided to try one more time, but this time I used all of the H-6's against Okinawa instead of half. This was apparently enough to tip the balance just enough--most of the DFs were shot down but enough made it through to give me about 1000 points. Then I lost a few hundred from the counter-attack. A fraction of the DFs got though to Korea (how in the world are you getting them all through?!) but I ended up with about 1800 points. None of my ASBMs got through to the carrier and at that point I was out of DFs, but luckily I managed to shoot down some satellites and ended with just over 2000. With this monkey finally off my back, I am never playing this scenario again!

[NathanF]

Once you know a few things this one is, dare I say, easy. Misawa. It's all about Misawa. Large Hardened Shelters are good for 110 points each.

1) Launch all the H-6s and head em north.
2) Set up AEWs and CAP near the coast for Tomahawk Patrol. I use 3 AEWs and several 3-4 plane sections of CAP.
3) Hit Okinawa and Korea with all the DF-15s and 16s. All at once. Soak up all the SM-3 IIAs. Target only Runways and Large Hardened Shelters. Limited on those targets.
4) Drive the Western most DF-21 ASBM East as far as you can. Or don't. I've gotten through the Reagan group's air defenses with just the 12 in range a few times. As soon as Reagan is picked up on satellite Launch!
5) Once those H-6s are just west of North Korea and 1100 miles from Misawa, fire em. Use the northern most DF-10s and launch on a direct bearing at the same time. Again, target only Runway and Large Hardened Shelters. Misawa has plenty. Then both batteries of DF-26s and all 4 DF-21s. Time to arrive close to the same time. 8-12 missiles per target.

That's it. No special actions. No need to worry about satellites. My last run I had a score of over 4000.

[mikmykWS]

Great job Nathan!

Mike

[NathanF]

Just played it again. Didn't worry about satellites. Launched zero AEW or fighter aircraft. Just let the S-300s do what they could against the tomahawks. Didn't target the Reagan either. This is ONLY DF-15s and -16s against Korea and Okinawa bases to soak up SM-3s and then the H-6s, DF-10s (48), DF-21s and DF-26s against Misawa targeting Large Hardened Shelters.

Triumph
Your final score is: 4090

SIDE: United States-Japan-South Korea
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
1x Radar (J/FPS-5)
37x A/C Hardened Aircraft Shelter (1x Large Aircraft)
17x Ammo Revetment
1x E-2C Hawkeye 2000
1x A/C Hangar (1x Very Large Aircraft)


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
46x RIM-161E SM-3 NTW Blk IIA
48x THAAD C-2
66x MIM-104F Patriot PAC-3 MSE
4x MIM-104F Patriot PAC-3 ERINT
2x MIM-104E Patriot PAC-2 GEM+
25x MIM-104C Patriot PAC-2
24x AIM-120D AMRAAM P3I.4
38x AAM-4B Kai [Type 99]
4x AAM-5 [Type 04]
3x AIM-9X Sidewinder
16x AIM-120B AMRAAM
6x AIM-9S Sidewinder
10x 20mm/85 M61A1 Vulcan Burst [100 rnds]
32x UGM-109E Tomahawk Blk IV TACTOM
8x UGM-109E Tomahawk Blk IV TACTOM
25x RIM-161B SM-3 NTW Blk IA



SIDE: China
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
1x Radar (China OTH-SW Receiver)
1x Radar (China OTH-SW Transmitter)


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
36x DF-16B [Penetrator]
12x DF-16B [Submunitions]
48x DF-10 GLCM
24x DF-15B [Conventional, CSS-6 Mod-2]
36x DF-15C [Penetrator, CSS-6 Mod-3]
24x DF-15B RV [Conventional, CSS-6 Mod-2]
12x DF-16B RV [Submunitions]
36x DF-16B RV [Penetrator]
36x DF-15C RV [Penetrator, CSS-6 Mod-3]
182x KD-20 [CJ-10A] ALCM
24x DF-26C [Conventional]
11x SA-20a Gargoyle [48N6E]
48x DF-21C [Conventional, CSS-5 Mod-3]
21x DF-26C RV [Conventional]
44x DF-21C RV [Conventional, CSS-5 Mod-3]
9x HQ-9A



SIDE: US Satellites
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------


EXPENDITURES:
------------------



SIDE: China Satellites
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------


EXPENDITURES:
------------------

[ColonelMolerat]

Oh you devs! [:@][:'(][:D]
I think I was tempted to call you some awful things that would get me permanently banned from these forums on my 100th attempt at this mission!!
I've finally done it though (after two... three months?)! It's a really interesting one - the first I've really had to consider SRBMs in detail, with a lot of help from the posts here and a thorough reading of this brilliant AAR.
It's a funny case of not actually being that hard once you know the correct tactics - final score of 2570.
I started with some good luck - shooting down four satellites! - then used my cyberwarriors to disable the Korean THAAD and sent all of my southern SEAD and LACM planes towards Okinawa, along with two of my four ECM planes and an AAW shield. Along the way I launched my cruise missiles towards Okinawa - almost all at the four runways, but some at the hangers). After a bit longer I launched the SRBMs, so that everything would arrived almost at once. With the SRBMS I aimed the penetrators at the hardened aircraft shelters (100points each) and everything else at the runways/hangars. The strike force arrived completely unnoticed, actually a bit ahead of the missiles (they flew low towards the end)! They took out a few SAM sites, softening up the defences, then fled. The AAW planes ended being more of a liability than anything else - they arrived before the enemy had taken off, then some got shot down during the retreat.
Next, I used my very Northern SRBMS to target the Japanese runways (except for the penetrators which I saved for Korea). These did some damage, but were most use in using up the Ronald Reagans missile defences (it has a long range, so wastes them all on threats over Japan.
Around the same time, all of my Badgers (I had these formed-up in China) fired on Korea, along with my Cruise missiles in the North. Repeating the pattern I used against Okinawa, I timed some AAW and jamming to arrive just behind the missiles, and the SRBMs to arrive at the same time as everything else - the AAW destroyed the enemy planes (who were distracted by shooting down my cruise missiles); I had forgotten to include any SEAD, though. Again, pretty much everything targeted runways, with some missiles hitting the hangars and the penetrators hitting the hardened aircraft shelters.
Finally, I realised my anti-ship missile launchers in the West were out-of-range of the Reagan - they raced East until they were in range, and fired, sinking it for a final 1000 points!
(Not mentioned - I had set up an AAW and AEW wall to target incoming missiles, but I kept out of range of any dogfights. I also lured some enemy planes into range of my SAMs when they tried to hit my newly-launched cruise missiles in the North.

A very rewarding mission, and very interesting to learn how to complete - my first attempt scored -2200 points, then I got around 100-500 a few times, then 1300, until finally this!

SIDE: United States-Japan-South Korea
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
1x P-3C Orion Update III
5x F-15C Eagle
7x A/C Hardened Aircraft Shelter (1x Large Aircraft)
5x Ammo Shelter
4x F-16CJ Blk 52 Falcon [KF-16C]
13x A/C Hangar (2x Medium Aircraft)
2x F-16CM Blk 42 Falcon
2x A/C Hardened Aircraft Shelter (1x Medium Aircraft)
32x F/A-18E Super Hornet
8x F/A-18F Super Hornet
5x EA-18G Growler
3x E-2C Hawkeye 2000
1x CVN 76 Ronald Reagan [Nimitz Class]


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
87x MIM-104F Patriot PAC-3 MSE
2x SAM-4 Chu-SAM [Type 03]
8x MIM-104C Patriot PAC-2
50x MIM-104E Patriot PAC-2 GEM+
36x AAM-4B Kai [Type 99]
69x AIM-120D AMRAAM P3I.4
1x MIM-23E I-HAWK
36x UGM-109E Tomahawk Blk IV TACTOM
28x UGM-109E Tomahawk Blk IV TACTOM
11x AAM-5 [Type 04]
17x AIM-9X Sidewinder
60x RIM-161E SM-3 NTW Blk IIA
48x THAAD C-2
12x RIM-161B SM-3 NTW Blk IA
71x 20mm/85 M61A1 Vulcan Burst [100 rnds]
39x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
31x AIM-120B AMRAAM
24x AIM-9S Sidewinder
16x MIM-104F Patriot PAC-3 ERINT
5x AN/ALE-50 [RT-1646/ALE]
14x AIM-120C-5 AMRAAM P3I.2
54x MIM-23C I-HAWK
4x KM-SAM [Modified 9M96]
16x RIM-174A-2 ERAM SM-6MR Blk IA [Dual I]
1x 127mm/54 HE-CVT [HiFrag]



SIDE: China
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
3x JH-7A Flounder


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
4x SC-19
96x DF-10 GLCM
16x KD-88 LACM
26x YJ-91 [Kh-31P, ARM]
13x PL-15
14x Generic Chaff Salvo [4x Cartridges]
24x DF-26C [Conventional]
24x DF-15B [Conventional, CSS-6 Mod-2]
36x DF-15C [Penetrator, CSS-6 Mod-3]
36x DF-16B [Penetrator]
12x DF-16B [Submunitions]
48x DF-21C [Conventional, CSS-5 Mod-3]
24x DF-26C RV [Conventional]
36x DF-16B RV [Penetrator]
19x DF-15B RV [Conventional, CSS-6 Mod-2]
12x DF-16B RV [Submunitions]
182x KD-20 [CJ-10A] ALCM
36x DF-15C RV [Penetrator, CSS-6 Mod-3]
48x DF-21C RV [Conventional, CSS-5 Mod-3]
102x PL-12
8x PL-10
24x SA-20a Gargoyle [48N6E]
4x SA-20b Gargoyle [48N6E2]
4x 30mm Gsh-30-1 Burst [30 rnds]
20x DF-21D [ASBM, Conventional, CSS-5 Mod-4]
13x DF-21D RV [ASBM, CSS-5 Mod-4]

[mikmykWS]

Glad everything worked out!

Mike

[ColonelMolerat]

Glad everything worked out!

Mike

Thanks! One of my greatest recent gaming achievements!

I simply turned off the penalty for losing aircraft. It was far too steep.

That's one of the things I really like about CMANO - you can use the editor at any time to tweak missions to explore possibilities or adjust them to your playstyle; it remembers that the game should be tailored to the player!

ORIGINAL: blkholsun
and I activate the special event just as they are coming into range

Blkholsun - perhaps you are activating the 'Disable Korean THAAD' event too late? I *think* it works by disconnecting the THAAD from the radar & comms network for the rest of the mission; if it has already received the targets from the radar network when you activate the event, perhaps it will still be able to fire? I activated it straight away (after a couple of tries).