Maria & Victoria 1982

[fitzpatv]

In the first of two Falklands/Malvinas War scenarios, you command an Argentine sub, the San Luis, ordered to disrupt British landings. Wasn't that keen on fighting my fellow Brits but, hey, it's just a game!

Headed into the patrol zone and risked going to periscope depth so that I could, at least, see the approaching RN vessels. Had to adjust Doctrine settings to avoid auto-diving because there was a helicopter about. Went for a policy of taking a look briefly, then diving, moving to another location and repeating the process.

This eventually turned-up a surface contact, which proved to be a minesweeper (the Cordelia). Unsure if I'd get another chance, I fired two of my ten Seeaal torpedoes. As it happened, one would have done the trick and I should maybe have been more sparing.

Moved away from the scene of the crime, but still attracted a chopper, which began dropping sonobuoys. Fortunately, I found myself in the eye of the storm, with an exit route to the W. However, an escort vessel was moving to close the gap. Given little choice, I engaged with another pair of tinfish. These missed, but drove the frigate away.

Followed the torpedoes and got clear of the buoys, but another three frigates were closing-in from the N. Altered course towards the nearest and engaged with Seeaals #5 and #6. The frigate Yarmouth turned to run, but was overhauled and sunk.

With the buoys no longer operational, I steered ENE in an effort to get around the escorts and then search for the landing ships while I had torpedoes left. However, a frigate (the Alacrity) again came dangerously close. Fired torpedo #7, which hit, but didn't kill the target. Expended #8 to finish the job, but was still left facing a Minor Defeat.

Resumed course and risked returning to periscope depth to look around. In doing so, I practically bumped into the landing ship Sir Galahad. Squeezed-off torpedo #9, which hit, but failed to sink the target. Followed-up with #10 but, in a quite spectacular stroke of bad luck, this missed THREE TIMES on a 70% chance and was declared a dud.

I then discovered that my back-up Mk37 torpedoes, of which I had four, were only usable against other subs. This left no choice but to withdraw, which was no problem despite the Brits sowing a few more buoys a safe distance away.

As it turned-out, the Sir Galahad sank due to fire and flood damage, which salvaged a Draw/Average result with a score of 700.

With hindsight, I should have a) used my torpedoes singly throughout and b) made more effort to steer around the escorts instead of engaging prematurely.

Interesting, though it would have been good to have had a scenario on this conflict from the British point-of-view.

I'll keep writing these reviews based on the original CMANO version of the game for now, as I'm still deciding whether to buy CMO in the next month or two.

[Patmanaut]

Good to see that one of the few scenarios I´ve designed some years ago is still playable.
I´ve bought CMO 2 days after release and I´ve found someone in the Dev team uploaded a revamped version which I don´t want to spoil.
Enjoy.