Matrix Games Forums

What units/weapons/sensors/etc do you find most interesting, and why? How is their nature reflected in CMANO?

I've just been reading this about the Super Tucano, and I thought it was an interesting story of the ideological struggle of low-tech vs high-tech... That said, I'm no expert, so I don't know how accurate the article was (and it sounded rather biased in places!).

I've not played with the Super Tucano in CMANO yet, but I might give it a go once I'm more familiar with mission editing.

The Arsenal ship is my favorite. I keep meaning to quad pack ESSMs into the 512 VLS cells.

Woah... Reading Wikipedia - that's a remote-control ship with 500 missile bays?! By quad pack... Do you mean 4 ESSMs per bay? Can it launch them at once? I might have to play around with that!

(I come to CMANO from an RTS rather than military background, so I'm still trying to wrap my head around the lingo and technology of naval/air warfare)

In near-future military fiction Ghost Fleet, the Chinese massive container ship was retooled into an arsenal ship, and shelling Hawaii into oblivion with over 1000 missiles. Caught US military completely off-guard because it was disguised as a civilian container ship.

I don't know what kind of missiles it used in this story, but based on around 300KT displacement, a deck with hundreds of 'chocolate checkers' could be possible.

If I have to be realistic about the icon of naval superpower, then I'd choose Iowa, Nimitz, and soon-to-be-commission Ford CVN.

ORIGINAL: ColonelMolerat

(I come to CMANO from an RTS rather than military background, so I'm still trying to wrap my head around the lingo and technology of naval/air warfare)

Me too, used to play a lot of Wargame and ARMA. If you invest enough time and pay some attention to the discussions in the forum you can learn tons of stuff about naval/air warfare and military sensors in a fairly short amount of time. Kudos to Command!

Hard to say which unit i think is the most interesting in the game. I agree, the Super Tucano is a very cool plane. Learned about it when I started to play my first missions in CMANO. Neat little COIN aircraft...and sexy too! [8D]

One thing that comes to my mind here is the Ukrainian Project 58250 Gayduk corvette. If the Russian Steregushchy-class and the Spanish-built Avante 2200-class had a baby, this is what it would look like... [:D] The class is not featured in the game but also in reality, construction of the first ship has been suspended due to budget constrains triggered by the ongoing Ukraine crisis. By 2014, the construction halted at about 60 percent... Anyways, what makes this ship interesting for me is the fact that the all sensors projected for integration onto the vessel (except sonars) are made in Ukraine whereas its complete weapons fit (MM40 Exocet Block 3 missiles, Rheinmetall Millennium 35mm guns, MU90 Eurotorps,...) would be of West-European origin. I don't know if the integration would really have worked smoothly but I liked the idea of it.

CMANO does a great job of showing how the same basic platform becomes steadily more capable in its later versions-for example, how you go from an F-16 with basic bombs to one that gets small improvements in the Mavericks it can launch, then finally gets the LANTIRN pod and the immense improvement that provides.

I like looking at one (even if it's common) platform and seeing the differences in the different versions.

P1000 Vulkan ASM, F-16i, and the MiG-25BM Foxbat F.

ORIGINAL: Coiler12

CMANO does a great job of showing how the same basic platform becomes steadily more capable in its later versions-for example, how you go from an F-16 with basic bombs to one that gets small improvements in the Mavericks it can launch, then finally gets the LANTIRN pod and the immense improvement that provides.

I like looking at one (even if it's common) platform and seeing the differences in the different versions.

This is actually one of my favorite aspects of the game. In a scenario I'm trying to finish up from 1973 with multiple US Carrier groups, there's a mix of aircraft variants spread across the carriers. It's a mess from a management perspective, but it does make you appreciate the capabilities of an A-6E/-7E vice the A models.

The ASAT F-15, YAL-1, SOSUS, anything nuclear [:D]

SR-72A Aurora [Senior Citizen]


Ive just used it for a test cheating recon run over a very High risk enviorment, Wow!!

The Super Tucano is one of my favorite airplanes.

A lot of what makes a unit interesting is its intended mission.

SOC-R and riverine boats are pretty cool to me, although the geographic database isn't necessarily very good for rivers. I keep playing around with them, though in the hopes of making a fun riverine scenario.

I love the SR-71, just because it's fun to write a scenario that runs in real time and has you tearing across the globe in a few hours. The name of the game with the SR-71 in CMANO is really about making sure there's tankers in the places you need them.

DDG-1000 is interesting because it's essentially a land-attack destroyer. It's interesting to try to test it's ability to interdict an enemy with its guns and missiles or support an amphibious force.

JHSV is interesting because its kind of a puzzle. What can I use these things for?

LCS is fun to play with because of the mission packages.

Soviet Alfa class sub...that is FAST...and...NOISY! [8D]

Me too, used to play a lot of Wargame and ARMA. If you invest enough time and pay some attention to the discussions in the forum you can learn tons of stuff about naval/air warfare and military sensors in a fairly short amount of time. Kudos to Command!

My background too! Arma, Wargame, and other 'slow, boring games' (the Paradox games, realistic flight sims, etc). But I wanted something even drier!

Back on topic... I've just discovered the Iranian Ghadir midget sub. What a fun little craft!! It's tiny and sneaky... But only has two torps. I'm just having fun sneaking ships of them into position around convoys, then firing and scarpering!

SR-72, A-12 and F-24.

These what if units are real game changers.

Besides those, I love to drop in newer units into scens, just to see what happens.

I like the Papa class sub.

I'm a fan of the AST-21 Super Tomcat and the Battle Island.

I have a thing for, of all things, the Knox class frigate. Such a nicely balanced ship, possibly the most efficient ASW escort ever built, and it packs 10 kilotons.

Midway class aircraft carriers. Their size, weapons, and capabilities changed so much over the years.

ORIGINAL: FlyingBear

I have a thing for, of all things, the Knox class frigate. Such a nicely balanced ship, possibly the most efficient ASW escort ever built, and it packs 10 kilotons.

I always liked the Knox-class. There was one of them (USS Vreeland) involved in Panama providing NGFS. Pretty cool for an escort.

ORIGINAL: FlyingBear

I have a thing for, of all things, the Knox class frigate. Such a nicely balanced ship, possibly the most efficient ASW escort ever built, and it packs 10 kilotons.

Although I like the Knox, that's a big claim.

If by 'efficient' you mean cost effective, one could counter with the 'Flower' class corvettes of WW2, or I suspect many of the DE classes the USN built.

If efficiency equals capability in a small ship you could counter with the Brit Type 22 or the Canadian Halifax class frigates, probably several others. Both are faster and more reliable (engineering wise), with a more a capable ASW suite.

One series of ships I find interesting are the CGNs. In capability besides propulsion they were equivalent to their steam powered cozens. I think the Long Beach was the only unique hull. The Bainbridge was a nuc powered Leahy, the Truxtun, California class and Virginia class were nuc powered Belknaps.

These ships weren’t failures in any way but a branch of the evolutionary chain which showed promise but did not live up to the potential, mostly due to cost. Not sure of another propulsion system which fits this bill - I guess paddle wheel steamers.

B