Matrix Games Forums

USSR vs Canada, September 1977

During World War 2, German U-Boats carried their war well into the Gulf of the Saint Lawrence and even into the river itself, at one point sinking a merchant ship off Rimouski, just 150 nm downstream from Ville de Quebec. The Royal Canadian Navy at that time was hard pressed to prevent the depredations and this proved to be something of a embarassment in Parliament, the Ministry of Defence and the Naval Staff. More than thirty-years on, coastal defenses were again lacking. The major focus of the Atlantic Maritime Command was on blue-water convoy protection and ASW operations in the North Atlantic but the large force of aircraft and minor warships that eventually forced the U-Boats out of Canadian waters in 1944-45 are no more.

The Canadian Forces at this time has seen some very lean years. All but four of the major surface warships are based upon designs more than two-decades old, the venerable CS-2F Trackers have lost their ASW capabilities and the CP-107 Argus LRMP’s are now long in the tooth and overdue for replacement. A Canadian version of the P-3 Orion is on order but delivery of the CP-140 Aurora is still some years away. However, even with the material shortcomings the personnel are well trained and the available “O” Class submarines are worked up and ready.

Now there’s a general war against the Warsaw Pact and protecting Canadian waters has to compete with NATO tasks for scarce ships and planes. Into this unsatisfactory defensive situation sails an aggressive Soviet submarine.

You are the captain of B-46, a Project 641 diesel-electric submarine and a unit of the 16th Guards Attack Submarine Brigade of the Red Banner Northern Fleet. Your boat has been on station the northwestern Atlantic between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland for some ten-days before the war broke out two weeks ago. In five days you will need to commence the long and dangerous transit back to base in Murmansk. So far Fleet Command has ordered your boat to continue its electronic surveillance of NATO naval and air activities off the Gulf of the St. Lawrence and not to conduct attacks on merchant shipping. This tedious and hazardous routine has involved frequently raising the ESM masts and recording the signals for communications specialists on board to analyze. Contact to Fleet and Brigade has been tenuous at best as HF is unreliable and dangerous to use while the new SATCOM transmitter has failed but you are able to receive and can also use VLF with caution. Your radio team has assured you that they have gathered a vast amount of data and signals intelligence and you hope that it's been worth it.

Your communications officer has decoded a message from Fleet HQ received during the just-finished snorkel run so you have a full charge on the batteries and the boat's been aired out. The message is double coded and the heading reads: FOR CAPTAIN’S EYES ONLY. In the privacy of your tiny cabin you apply the single use Brigade cypher for commanding officers and read “To Commanding Officer B.46 OPERATION MARINESKO - EXECUTE”. You have sealed orders for Operation Marinesko in your safe and so you call your political officer and XO to your quarters and open the envelope when they arrive.

Please read the end notes in the scenario briefing as there may be important information regarding the enemy there.

Briefing:

TOP SECRET

24 July 1977

From: Operations Section 16 Gds Atk Sub Bde//Northern Fleet Main Political Directorate

To: Commanding Officer B.46

OPERATION MARINESKO

General

1. These instructions shall only be opened on specific orders from Northern Fleet Command and must be read in the presence of B.46's Political Officer. They are to be executed as detailed below regardless of whether a state of war between NATO and the Soviet Union is currently known to be in effect.

2. The goal of Operation Marinesko is to disrupt shipping on Canada's East coast and cause the reinforcement of coastal defences along the Atlantic seaboard of North America. Success will reduce the escorts and aircraft available for convoys to Europe.

3. To facilitate this goal B.46 will penetrate the Gulf of the St. Lawrence and attack the rail ferries that connect the island of Newfoundland with the Canadian mainland. Destruction of these ships should provoke a panic response and draw significant NATO forces into coastal defence tasks. At least four of these ships are usually at sea and sinking at least two would materially and politically benefit the Soviet Union.

Intelligence

4. It is expected that by the time these orders are opened you will have established the operational patterns in the air and surface defenses in the Gulf of St. Lawrence so no current information on these is covered in these orders.

5. The targets are the ferries regularly sailing the routes between North Sidney Nova Scotia and both Port aux Basque and Argentia on the island of Newfoundland. The largest of these are the two train ferries of the Marine Nautica class, German-built ex-Baltic Sea ferries acquired by the Canadian National Railways, an arm of government required to provide the ferry service.

6. The last available published schedule shows the Sidney-Argentia ships depart Sidney daily at 1800 and Argentia at 1000. The ships to Port aux Basque departing Sidney at 0800 and 1700 and depart Port aux Basque at 1800 and 0100. All times are local but no information as to what schedules may be in effect during wartime is known. Marine Nautica and Marine Atlantica have been used on both routes and are the primary targets for the operation.

7. The following ships serve as ferries for the Newfoundland routes:

a. MV Marine Nautica and Marine Atlantica - 15500 GRT capable of carrying 260 automobiles or 30 rail cars plus up to 800 passengers [displays as Commercial RO-RO 11500 tons]. Used on the Sidney - Argentia route and generally sail at 18 to 20 knots.

b. MV William Carson and Sir Robert Bond - 9600 and 9200 GRT capable of carrying about 186 automobiles or 22 rail cars plus up to 470 passengers [displays as Commercial Ferry 1900 DWT]. Used on the Sidney - Port aux Basque route and generally operate at 18-19 knots. These vessels are similar but not true sisters although both have limited ice breaking capability and should be considered as armoured in the area of the bow.

Mission Execution

8. Because local conditions cannot be predicted tactical conduct of the mission is your responsibility as is sensor status and weapon selection. Your Area of Responsibility includes the entire Gulf of the St. Lawrence SOUTH to N45* 50' and EAST to W53* 45'.

9. The use of Atomic arms is NOT authorized at this time. Release of atomic torpedoes will only be permitted with direct orders from HQ Northern Fleet as per applicable standing and special orders.

10. Once at least one ferry has been sunk you are authorized to commence attacks on NATO merchant shipping, warships and targets of opportunity. Remain in AOR until 2400 Moscow Standard Time (Z-Time + 3-hours), 25 September then commence return to base transit.

11. Maintain strict radio silence until East of W51*. Expect VLF situation reports when available.

12. After reading, these orders are to be destroyed under the direct supervision of the political officer.

Good Luck and Good Hunting Comrade Captain.

F.D. Blagoveshensky, Captain 2nd Rank. CoS 16 Gds Atk Sub Bde for Brigade Commander.

TOP SECRET

Thanks in advance for any feedback and suggestions.

-C

Very good scenario idea and representation. Thanks!

Will try and get to this one later in the week

B

Very good idea but somehow I felt the pace of the scenario is too slow, minutes of terror and destruction followed by hour of lazy waiting or hiding at the bottom...maybe reconsidering the foxtrot choice? It seems really outpaced by everybody and his lack of long range sensor makes you revert to old WWII-era submarine tactics, like commerce ambushing and periscope engagements...maybe I'm doing it wrong?
Anyway good scenario

ORIGINAL: frankieITA

Very good idea but somehow I felt the pace of the scenario is too slow, minutes of terror and destruction followed by hour of lazy waiting or hiding at the bottom...maybe reconsidering the foxtrot choice? It seems really outpaced by everybody and his lack of long range sensor makes you revert to old WWII-era submarine tactics, like commerce ambushing and periscope engagements...maybe I'm doing it wrong?
Anyway good scenario

Thanks for the feedback. The pace is an inevitable function of the situation and employing the techniques of the U-Boat are likely one potentially effective solution to the tactical problem posed by the nature of a diesel boat and the mission orders.

I tend to write scenarios without much regard to Player oriented concepts like pace/tempo, balance or to intentionally provide lots of action just for the sake of action. Rather my design goals are generally more related to creating a realistic (or reasonable) tactical problem and providing the Player with tools to try and solve it and CMANO is an excellent vehicle for this sort of thing. That said, the observation that it might play out too slowly is certainly valid but a fix might wreck the core of the Player's tactical problem as it was conceived.

Obviously this scenario design philosophy is unlikely to be popular with segments of the Community but I'm cool with that and other designers have written some fast paced shoot 'em ups for those who want that particular itch scratched. Sorry but no nuke boat for Sink the Nautica, but thank you for taking the time to play the scenario and for the write up. Of course feel free to use the Editor to replace B-49 with a Victor, a Charlie or something else entirely. Comparing the different boat's in this situation might prove instructive.

-C

This is a submarine scenario-it's supposed to be slow

I thought this was detailed absorbing and interesting, its certainly unusual as well.
Quite liked the Foxtrot and strikes me as a plausible use for such a long ranged sub.
The fact that its hardly top of the range was entertaining too!

In the end I headed vaguely towards Sidney mostly at periscope or shallow. Eventually shocked to find Nautica and sank her at the second attempt. I then managed to sink a tanker (the Caladon I think) and a cargo vessel, both hostile. Once I was low on torpedoes I headed back. A HMCS type Saguenay blocked me somewhat so managed a good attack from deep and sank that.

Got to the exit area. This rightly triggered the scenario end but my scoring seems off. I managed a minor defeat at 100 for the Nautica alone, the other vessels didn't count at all.

The only other issue was when I sank Nautica, the Canadian defences went mad which was a nice touch, however they then sank the Oberon class and an awful lot of fish. As the Foxtrot can barely detect the biologics I did wonder if it wouldn't simplify things to drop those?

@ Flankerk: Cool, thank you for the test and the feedback.

The scoring is working as designed as the Player's orders are to sink two-ferries and doing this gets you an average win; the merchant ships or warships do not count towards victory by design as Fleet Command's objective are the ferries alone.

I usually find victory conditions abstracted and difficult to write or gamey. The aim here was to create conditions where anything less than the destruction of two ferries is less than Command wanted and so the performance of the Player is judged through that lens rather than your very strong and effective combat performance. One can almost visualize a post-patrol debrief with the Brigade Commander along the lines of "Very Good Comrade Captain but your orders were to sink two ferries"! Opinions on this philosophy are welcome and I'm not wedded to the current VP model but that is the design rationale.

Point taken with regards to sinking HMCS Okanagan by friendly fire, I did not see this in testing and I have figured a way to fix this. Air Command going nuts on poor Mother Nature is working by design as I figured that after any of the ferries is attacked it would be open season on all submerged contacts in the Gulf. The additional forces triggered by the sinking use the default ASW settings to attack unknown contacts. The Biologicals are for the AI more than the Player so it seems that is working as intended. However, it is certainly possible that this may be overstated in execution.

I have added a number of event messages to the Player for atmosphere and ambiance.

Thanks again.

-C

Playing it now, Creeping slowly around Newfoundland.
I was a little disappointed at the start, I had to handle an old slow mover, but I´ve never thought a Foxtrot SS could do so much damage.
After I downed a ferry it seems the RCAN gone mad and is launching torps to anything underwater, which adds the terrifying touch.

Good so far.


Edit / Added:
I´ve sunk Nautica, William Carson, a Minesweeper, a tanker and a container ship, and I´m still stuck with a minor defeat / 100VP. I haven't reached the exit area yet.

Thanks

P.

ORIGINAL: Patmanaut

Playing it now, Creeping slowly around Newfoundland.
I was a little disappointed at the start, I had to handle an old slow mover, but I´ve never thought a Foxtrot SS could do so much damage.
After I downed a ferry it seems the RCAN gone mad and is launching torps to anything underwater, which adds the terrifying touch.

Good so far.


Edit / Added:
I´ve sunk Nautica, William Carson, a Minesweeper, a tanker and a container ship, and I´m still stuck with a minor defeat / 100VP. I haven't reached the exit area yet.

Thanks

P.

Well Done. The scenario's Red Banner Northern Fleet command is awarding you the Order of Nakhimov 1st Class plus an additional 100 Victory Points since I neglected to check the Event is Repeatable box in the VP event. This prevented you from getting the 100-VP for sinking MV Carson.

Order of Nakhimov

Thanks for the feedback and finding the error.

-C

That´s unfair, I want my dacha on Odessa beach, I deserve it! [:D]

Is this ready for release?

ORIGINAL: Sunburn

Is this ready for release?

Already in the Community Scenario pack.

-C

Thanks!