Task Force Normandy 1991

[fitzpatv]

This is a pretty easy short scenario set during the First Gulf War. You command a force of US Army helicopters, charged with destroying a couple of Iraqi radar sites on the Saudi border on the opening night of the conflict. You are given a detailed set of instructions and it's really just about carrying them out. There are some 'Friendly' USAF Strike Eagles and EF-111 Raven electronic warfare planes about under AI control but, as usual, these play little real role in events.

You have a pair of Chinook transports, which should be flown to a marked area of about a square mile. Once there, they create a store and refuelling point and score you 25 VP. You then have to send a Blackhawk there to serve as a search and rescue plane if needed. The store theoretically gives you a source of new missiles and fuel (at some cost in time), but you shouldn't need it.

Meanwhile, you need to send two flights, each consisting of a Pave Low pathfinder and four Apache strike choppers to a couple of reference points, code-named India and Hotel. Once the Pave Lows get there (they should lead the Apaches in), they will automatically spot the general locations of the enemy radars (which the USAF planes signally fail to do). This scores another 25 VP per location.

It is then time to go in with the Apaches. Each has eight Hellfire missiles, which is more than enough to do the job. Iraqi SAMs in this scenario have a maximum range of 4nm, as do the Hellfires, so it's a case of approaching carefully as close as possible to that distance from the radars and letting fly. In this way, I took out both Spoon Rest radars and scored another 400 VP, which is plenty for a Major Victory.

Looking for the catch, I sent a chopper back in to kill a ZSU-23 mobile AA battery I'd detected (along with various army tents and supply installations). Did this for another 15 VP, but came under fire from one of those sneaky, hard-to-detect Gremlin MANPAD systems. This missed my Apache on 10% and 22% chances before I could get away. Decided not to risk messing-up a smooth operation for the sake of the 15 VP which would probably have delivered a Triumph and returned all units to base. The Triumph would, I imagine, have necessitated finding and killing at least one MANPAD battery, but it was a bit like going into a bush to fight a snake. Major Victory, with a score of 490.

I'll continue with this series, however much I'd like to play with the other modules, including the Community Pack, which I downloaded the other day. Have to say I'm looking forward to immersing myself in the Northern Fury series sometime...

[Gunner98]

I'm looking forward to immersing myself in the Northern Fury series sometime

I look forward to that...