Matrix Games Forums

From the description:

The USN must close down the Straits of Taiwan to Chinese maritime traffic. Will the Navy survive a high-intensity littoral environment?

This is my first scenario, so I apologize if it seems amateurish or unpolished in areas. Comments/critiques welcome.

P.S. if this mission doesn't keep you up at night hearing the 'vampire, vampire!' alert going off in your head, then nothing will![:D]

ORIGINAL: Currahee

From the description:

The USN must close down the Straits of Taiwan to Chinese maritime traffic. Will the Navy survive a high-intensity littoral environment?

This is my first scenario, so I apologize if it seems amateurish or unpolished in areas. Comments/critiques welcome.

P.S. if this mission doesn't keep you up at night hearing the 'vampire, vampire!' alert going off in your head, then nothing will![:D]

Played some of it. My computer doesn't like the biggest scenarios, but I was able to at least throw some blows. My plan was to play cautiously by throwing super-Tomahawks at the Chinese merchants and then ducking back behind Taiwan.

The scenario's a little scrunched up and basically boils down to dice rolls of defensive vs. offensive missiles, but it's still an intense fight.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll consider tweaking the amount of enemy SSMs so the outcome won't be mostly decided by ESSMs vs. C-802 missile die rolls like you said.

HIya

I like the scenario concept allot

Some thoughts

Have you played it through yourself ? I couldnt make it through the straights in the alloted time. the only way would be a mad dash at high speed.
I couldnt get my tomahawks to fire at the PLAN airfields, not sure why.
The SAG has very few ASW weapons, why would it enter the straights other than to be a target ? I couldnt get into gun range in the end due to some chinese SS and my subs were out of torpedoes to kill them off so i ended up exiting back the way i had come.
It was pretty difficult getting ASW helos up as mine got shot down almost immediately.
My subs did all the damage for me. Cringed every time i had to use a torpedo on a junk

I'll give it another go






SIDE: USA
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
1x DDG 103 Truxtun [Arleigh Burke Flight IIA]
2x DDG 91 Pinckney [Arleigh Burke Flight IIA]
1x LCS 2 Independence
3x MH-60S Knighthawk
1x MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV
8x SH-60B Seahawk
1x SSN 751 San Juan [Improved Los Angeles Class]


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
18x 127mm/62 HECVT
38x 20mm M197 Burst [20 rnds]
7x 20mm/100 Mk15 Phalanx Blk 1B Burst [300 rnds]
21x 57mm/70 Mk295 Mod 0 3P CIGS Burst [4 rnds]
32x 7.62mm M60D Burst [20 rnds]
23x AGM-114M Hellfire II
16x HYDRA APKWS II 70mm Rocket [WGU-59/B]
29x Mk214 Sea Gnat Chaff [Seduction]
18x Mk234 Nulka
70x Mk48 Mod 7 ADCAP CBASS
24x RGM-109I Tomahawk Blk IV MMT [Multi-Mission]
8x RGM-84G Harpoon ICR
6x RIM-116B RAM Blk I
657x RIM-162A ESSM
268x RIM-174A ERAM SM-6MR Blk I
92x RIM-66M-2 SM-2MR Blk IIIA
92x RIM-66M-5 SM-2MR Blk IIIB
4x RUM-139C VLA [Mk54]
6x UGM-109C Tomahawk Blk III TLAM
6x UGM-109C Tomahawk Blk III TLAM
20x UGM-109E Tomahawk Blk IV TACTOM
6x UGM-109E Tomahawk Blk IV TACTOM
12x UGM-109I Tomahawk Blk IV MMT [Multi-Mission]
8x UGM-109I Tomahawk Blk IV MMT [Multi-Mission]



SIDE: PLAN
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
5x Civilian Junk [35m, Sail, Armed]
3x DDG 138 Taizhou [Pr.956ME Sovremenny]
4x H-6G Badger
1x HQ-16A TELAR
12x J-7G Fishbed
8x JH-7A Flounder
2x Ka-28 Helix A
1x Ka-31 Helix
12x Q-5IA Fantan
1x S 364 [PL-877M Kilo]
2x S 368 [PL-636M Kilo]
6x Su-30MKK2 Flanker G
20x Type 022 Houbei
3x Type 041 Yuan
1x Type 051 Mod 4 Luda I [109 Kaifeng]
1x Type 052 Luhu [113 Qingdao]
1x Type 052B Luyang I [168 Guangzhou]
1x Type 052C Luyang II [170 Lanzhou]
1x Type 052D Luyang III [172 Kunming]
1x Type 053H Jianghu I [509 Changde]
1x Type 053H1G Jianghu V [558 Zigong]
1x Type 053H3 Jiangwei II [564 Yichang]
1x Type 054A Jiangkai II [530 Xuzhou]
2x Type 054A++ Jiangkai II [576 Huangshi]
2x Type 056 Jiangdao [582 Bengbu]
2x Type 071 [998 Kunlun Shan]
6x Type 072-III Yuting II [911 Tianzhushan]
3x Type 073-3 Yudeng [990]
1x Type 091 Han
1x Type 093 Shang
1x Type xxx Zubr [3325, MDK Pomornik, Pr.1232.2 Zubr]
1x Vehicle (HQ-16A FCR)
7x Z-9C Dauphin 2


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
10x 100mm/55 H/PJ-87 HECVT
24x 100mm/55 H/PJ-87 Twin HECVT Burst [2 rnds]
7x 30mm China H/PJ-12 [Type 730, 240 rnds]
24x AK-630M 30mm/65 Gatling Burst [400 rnds]
16x AS-17 Krypton C [Kh-31P, ARM]
20x C-802 [YJ-82, CSS-N-8 Saccade]
8x C-802K [YJ-82]
276x C-803 [YJ-83]
16x C-803K [YJ-83]
4x China Type 87 ASW Rocket Salvo [6 rnds]
12x Generic Acoustic Decoy
8x Generic Acoustic Decoy
3x Generic Chaff Rocket
135x Generic Chaff Salvo [4x Cartridges]
5x Generic Flare Salvo [4x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
29x HQ-16A
14x HQ-7B Crotale [FM-80] Naval
9x HQ-9A
48x HQ-9B
2x RGB-75 [Basic Search, Passive Omni]
32x SA-20a Gargoyle [48N6E]
138x SA-N-12 Grizzly [9M317]
2x SET-65KE
24x SS-N-22M Sunburn [P-270 Moskit]
4x SS-N-27 Sizzler [3M54E1 Klub]
16x YJ-18 [3M54E Klub Copy, Rocket Boosted Penetrator]
16x YJ-18 [3M54E Klub Copy]
8x YJ-62
3x Yu-6
1x Yu-7

Thanks for the feedback.

I played the scenario through with a time allotment I thought was excessive (around 16 hours, if I recall) and finished with like ten or so to go - but I guess that was biased since I knew what to expect. I'll boost the time back to around 16 or so hours, maybe a little less.
The reason I had the SAG enter the strait was A) it is more economical to use 5 inch shells and heli launched hellfires to sink junks thank Mk 48 torps (as you have pointed out), and B) for the (perceived) psychological effect such an operation would have (we just sailed a SAG down your throat, sank your rickety logistic ships, and bombarded your beachhead! Without F-22s! What now China![:D]) Granted, it might not be high command's brightest moments - but then we wouldn't have a scenario, would we?[:'(]
I am not sure why tomahawks aren't engaging airbases. That's never happened before. I look into it more.

As for some tips in the scen that I found helpful while play testing
1) Fly your helicopters low. Very low.
2) sprint and drift to detect subs. And of course, use your own subs. I included them in the scenario less as a scourge of the PLAN surface units, but as a counter to the Chinese subs lurking in the strait. Granted, you aren't gonna find all of them - you'll probably lose ships - but your losses should be acceptable (I think).

Again, I appreciate your comments.

Cool, yep i want to give this another go as i want to play the scen as you have designed it.

keep up the great work!!

cheers

Tried this as it stands and suspect it does need the longer time. I did wonder about moving the SAG back a little as it starts well within range with nothing the player can do about it. My version is showing as eight hours or so only, which I'd agree doesn't sound enough? The SAG effectively doesn't have much in the way of anti shipping missiles, while the subs also run out. You'd need lots of repeat strikes from the likes of the helicopters to complete it.

If there is another longer time scenario pending I'd look forward to playing it as well.

Sorry for the long delay. Again, thanks for the comments. I have uploaded a newer version with 16 hours total. The SAG is supposed to be a little light on ASuW missile, to demonstrate the inconceivable idea to remove AGM-84s from the Burke's (I mean, really? what genius came up with that idea? Honestly I'd rather have one less cruiser or destroyer than no Harpoons, but I'm not the Navy) and to show off the USN's gun dueling capability. I intended for the SAG to be in range of Chinese ASuW missile range in the beginning to simulate the PLAN holding their fire until able to conduct a hopefully overwhelming attack. But if you think these should be traded off for scenario playbility, just let me know.

Played this again, and scored a win, can't recall how many points sorry.
Most things are working, I think the message log needed clearing, and probably adding in weather would help the sub conflicts.

All worked as I think intended, but I'm not completely sure on the balance of this one. I'd play it differently next time, so its difficult to be certain, however the PLAN strikes I honestly thought were a bit too much. I moved the SAG North having barely moved south at all, I did so once I was down to my last 100 SAM's and I mean my last 100.
Th only real strike you have is the subs. I found the helicopters couldn't get a realistic strike in, while they didn't even survive to provide radar coverage. At any kind of altitude they are a target for some high end SAM's from China or its surface units.

My subs rapidly ran out of torpedoes, scored a lot of kills, but eventually the magazines emptied. The SAG does have some SSM's, but its limited. I found these struggled to overwhelm even the one Chinese SAG nearest you.

The Tomahawks got some merchant types, the odd junk, but failed miserably against the higher spec PLAN units. Bear in mind the US isn't going to have the best of targeting, the radar coverage is down to the helicopters, and their life expectancy is short.

In the end I lost two LCS, and I ended up running away from several surface combatants, and two subs that were heading into the formation. There was no way to get through the channel.

I'd be tempted to see what others felt, and how they'd fared. If there is a good tactic to use on the first outing then its probably balanced enough. If I wanted a win, I think I'd actually head North at flank and let the subs do all the fighting. The SAG coming back later at creep would probably pick up some subs, and be in range anyway to use the Tomahawks. Once the PLAN main strikes are underway its a question of attrition that will go one way I suspect.