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Hunter - Killer

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2013 8:49 pm
by JCR
First time I attempted such a big scenario.
Since all patrol zone missions were allready pre set I left it at that (is there a way to start blank?).
My task forces detected numerous false contacts and engaged them, so I was genuinely surprised when one of the contacts turned out to be a real sub :)
Apart from that I had some Trackers run out of fuel and a second sub (Whiskey SSG) running afoul of my P-3s in the south. In the same area, I detected a soviet SAG.
While it posed no real threat, it was too tempting a target.
Unfortunately, the NATO player has not a single dedicated strike aircraft in this scenario!
Didn't CVS air groups include some Skyhawks at some point?
After considering detaching some DDs to deal with it, I checked the loadouts and noticed that P-2 Neptunes could be loaded with Zunis and 1000 lb bombs.
Trackers only could load ASW loadouts with either bombs or rockets.
So I rearmed 3 Neptunes at Keflavik while I sent a unassigned EC-121 south to keep radar contact with the SAG.
The three Neptunes attacked in very bad weather and were all shot down by soviet flak...
However, they managed to rocket a Kildin destroyer and place some bombs on the Sverdlov cruiser, sinking both. I ignored the rest.
After that, it was smooth sailing without a contact.
Apart from sporadic air contacts in the GIUK gap early in the game, soviet naval aviation left me alone.
I was a bit disappoined when the Convoy reached Rotterdam without further attack.

If I hadn't attacked the SAG, my only losses would've been from fuel starvation and the only ordnance the soviet side expended were AA rounds and (futile) torpedo decoys.

I think this scenario needs improvement, some help for the AI as soviet to detect the convoy.
I looked at the soviet side in the Editor and half the atlantic was full of subs with a AGI mixed in and there were dozens of bombers ready at the Kola peninsula, yet no attack developed.

RE: Hunter - Killer

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2013 10:01 pm
by hellfish6
Hi,

Thanks for playing it - too bad I didn't get this feedback when I posted it for testing! :)

There isn't a way to clear reference points as far as I know, and I wanted both the US and Soviet sides to be playable, so I had to create missions for both sides.

I put a lot of false contacts in there. Scenarios with nothing to investigate except confirmed contacts are a little bland to me - the ocean is filled with ships and rocks and whales and schools of fish that all combine to make an operations officer develop chronic ulceritis. I was tempted to add neutral shipping in there, but I ended up siding with performance. Besides, the surface contacts are more for fun than anything else. In 1962, the Soviet fleet was almost entirely defensive, and probably couldn't/wouldn't send surface raiders out into the North Atlantic.

Some CVSes carried 6 Skyhawks as fighter/attack aircraft. The USS Randolph did not, at least in 1962 - neither did the Essex, also operating as an ASW carrier. The orders of battle are all as complete as I could make them, and the Randolph is carrying exactly what she carried during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The USS Wasp, also operating in the Atlantic during the Crisis, carried A-4s in addition to her ASW aircraft.

So you don't have dedicated strike aircraft, but you do have ad-hoc strike aircraft. :) I've launched S-2s and P-2s in strike roles to go after those surface raiders. Or you can ignore them. Decisions you have to make as a commander - is it worth risking losing some of your ASW assets to go after a target that may be irrelevant to you?

The Soviet naval aviation is a problem with, I think, the Soviet airbase. I brought it up in the beta forum - I'm not sure what the problem is, because in previous iterations of the scenario I didn't have an issue with the long range aviation. I'll see what I need to do in order to fix the issue - if it's a DB issue, then its largely out of my hands.

As designed, the Soviet recon aircraft are the primary method I've given them to detect your forces, though your subs should be converging on your forces once they're detected. I'll update it soon.

RE: Hunter - Killer

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 6:57 am
by JCR
Weird thing is, when I select the soviet side, missions for the subs, most of the naval aviation and SAG are scrubbed.
Only a airstrike on iceland is left as a mission (which didn't take place in my playthrough as NATO)
weird

Edit:
Also it seems all russian subs lack reloads. They just have the torps in their tubes :(