Russian Civil War - Phase 1, 2004

[Gunner98]

In addition to Ancalagon451's great walk though, you may want to plot courses for various TLAM groups.

Away from the game atm but in the lower right hand box - 'Weapons allocated to selected target' there is a button to 'Plot course'.

Select the group of weapons heading to a target - hit plot course and you go to the map. You can insert waypoints - as many as the weapon or the max range will allow - and maneuver your weapons around known danger areas, though constricting terrain or have them approach the target from an unexpected axis. I think the escape key pops you back to the targeting window. You can clear the course if you mess it up and start again. Very good tool in situations where the IADS is not yet degraded.

One trick for this is to have all weapons aimed at a specific target come from one shooter - it minimizes the work you need to do. If you

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[MikeJ19]

Wow, that is great help. Thank you so much Ancalagon451. Bart, thanks for explaining how I can control the direction of attack.

Have a good day!

[Whicker]

how'd it go?

I just played, kinda got beat up, average score of 34. I lost 35 AC (whoops) but killed 5 for each one I lost so maybe that is sort of ok? A lot of it was poor management. I used up all but 2 of the CMs.
I could have kept attacking ground units the last 10 - 15 hours but it felt like I was done. Probably could have got another 10-15 points pretty easily.

Biggest lesson maybe was that the CM's could really use an escort, I lost quite a few to enemy AC with guns.

There was an enemy ASuW attack that never really happened as they kept running out of fuel. Their mission area didn't make much sense.

Triumph is at 500 points, which basically means you can only loose a few AC.

[Gunner98]

Biggest lesson maybe was that the CM's could really use an escort

That is a very good point. AAW, ECM and SEAD escorts to help them in.

Timing and routing of your TLAM strike is also critical. First punch a hole in his EW; find a thin spot in the radar coverage and then knock out anything that can see the route - watch for AWACS. Take a really good look at the terrain, TLAMS cruise at 200ft AGL so drive them behind ridgelines and other terrain, although that is tricky here as there isn't much. Night attacks are better than day as a TLAM flies so slow and low, ground units can see them.

When the attack goes in - jamming, jamming, jamming - and SEAD escort. Put an AAW attack in at mid altitude and coming from a totally different direction to draw off his CAPs - make it loud, obvious and powerful, but don't kill too much too early, or replacements will launch and may go for your TLAMs. Hopefully all you will need to deal with along the axis of the TLAM attack are Ftrs on intercept and SAMs - so a smaller AAW/SEAD escort running in at lower altitude and hanging back a bit - don't give away the game with the escort.

TLAM attacks are fun to plan and can be quite complex. Enjoy.

[MikeJ19]

Whicker,

I have been away for the last couple of days. I hope to find some time this week to keep working on this battle. However, I'm going to take some time to better understand the capabilities of the weapons I have. I will try to set up some different trials, like firing some Tomahawks at a radar site and then a missile site. I want to play around and put Gunner98's comments into play - plotting the course of the missiles so that they arrive from the direction I want.

Also, as Gunner98 mentions above, I want to look at how to orchestrate a multi layer attack with jamming, SEAD strikes, CAP and the missiles.

The hope is that this will increase my understanding of the different weapon options. I'm an army guy and the learning curve is steep...

Have a good day,

[MikeJ19]

I will start this in the morning...

[Whicker]

I plotted most of them, and I think it helped a little. Most of the CM losses were due to the enemy CAP - well other than when you go straight for the SA-10s. Those will kill a lot of CMs and I think the HARMS may work better. I did try to do some combined strikes with CMs and AC, I think it certainly helps. The best way to learn what works in my opinion is to take a scen like this and cheat - but not to cheat to win - just play in editor mode and as your strike is going in and you have your jammers on, switch to the enemy side and see if it makes a difference. I usually zoom in to my AC so I don't see all the enemy stuff, I just want to see if the jamming works. So I'll do that and then switch back and turn off the jammers, wait a few, then go back and see if there is a difference. I did this on this one and I did not notice any differences with the jammers on. Not sure why that was, other times it has made a huge difference. Same thing for altitude - I brink in the HARMs at 1000' and I think that makes a big difference.

The radars that are by themselves just need one CM usually.

I never attacked the other stuff - only radars and sams. The briefing didn't specifically say to attack the ammo dump etc. I'm guessing those are for part 2?

Do we know who made these scens? there was no author listed but it has a certain familiar feel to it.

[Gunner98]

jmarso made these scenarios back in 2015. Haven't seen him around lately though.

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[MikeJ19]

I went back to the start of the scenario to try these tests. I ran the following test. I think I will skip the missile test -based on the comments from Whicker, I can figure out what will likely happen.

So, I will set up a SEAD strike with Prowlers and SEAD F-18s. Should be interesting.

[MikeJ19]

Setting up the SEAD test

[MikeJ19]

The results of the test. I need to think a little about the lessons from this one.

[Ancalagon451]

You had unchecked the "pre-planned targets in target list only" box. So the attackers where allowed to engage any relevant type target that entered weapons range.

To force your units to attack only the selected targets just check the box when setting the mission.

You can also select the mission targets before setting the mission and after that select the "add new mission" tag in the main screen menu, doing it that way the targets will be autoloaded in the list and the target list only box autochecked.

Ancalagon

[MikeJ19]

Ancalagon451,

Thanks for the information - very useful.

Here are my thoughts. Now to look at a combined strike with the SEAD planes and some Tomahawks.

[MikeJ19]

Planning for test 3

[MikeJ19]

Observations for test 3.

After work, I will look at re running this test

[Gunner98]

Mike

Well done!

Your curiosity about the effect of the jammers is a common one. Long and detailed threads have discussed effects and perceptions for their use. Quite frankly, there is a lot of science & math layered behind both real and the simulated ECM effects and I get lost in the technicalities.

I believe, that although the Devs are limited to open source information, the game probably models jamming pretty well. The dance between jamming, counter jamming, passive measures and other technology is complex and the reality is you really never know if your being effective until you see some positive information i.e. a SAM/Ftr fails to shoot or quickly loses track - or not.

So your curiosity is healthy to have and must always be kept in mind. I like to thing of Jamming as superimposed to go back to fire-planning days; there but don't count on it.

On the other hand some have done tests which isolate a small scenario with and without jammer and there is effect. Most times it reduces the range that a radar can acquire a target but some times it only affects a warhead seeker. But when you get into complex situations where both sides are using jammers and both sides have a mix of weapons and seekers, it gets tricky.

This will certainly give you some tense moments in the game.

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[MikeJ19]

Bart,

Thanks for the info and the context. It makes sense to me. Thinking of jamming being superimposed makes sense to me.

I'm really enjoying trying out different ideas and seeing how they come together. There is always a little surprise somewhere. I certainly am learning how complex the air and naval environments are.

All the best,

[MikeJ19]

A look at my thoughts on the next test. Hopefully, this will be the last one before returning to the actual battle where I get to put this to use.

[MikeJ19]

The last test results

[MikeJ19]

Turning back to the scenario. Here is a revisit of the plan. I have made some slight changes to it. I want the timing to be closer and I reduced the number of Tomahawks that I will launch.