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Thought I would give this one a go. Nice, quick scenario, ended with an Average score -1200 points.

On reviewing my forces realized that this is one of the most anemic CVBGs I had seen in a long time. 1x Belknap CG, one Sprucan, 2x CF Adams and 2x Knox - and the CVW didn't have any F/A-18s! Only about 16 F-14A but with sub-optimal loadouts in a 6 hr long scenario. Worse, only 8 Intruders were ready and two were rigged for Buddy-store! 1x P-3 with Harpoons was available.

No subs! Crikey - I hope things don't get too sticky...

Thankfully the bad guys was also light on resources. Once hostilities began I got ramped up into an ongoing gunfight with a squadron of MiG-31s. 4v4 with Tomcats works well if you split up and play it smart and have a jammer in the area. 2V4 not so much. First scrap 4-0 for the good guys. Second round was 3-1, my Prowler had to dive to the deck to get out of town which opened a window and allowed me to test the great SAR special action that is setup. Third round was not so good 2.5-1, this was a 2v4 with the jammer out of position - my survivor was out of gun ammo as he tagged with a pair of Heavy BARCAP birds coming to the rescue, but the Foxhounds got away.

Splashed some recon Badgers and almost dropped a torp on a whale but Greenpeace would be proud of my restraint...

In the meantime I got the order to sink a ship but with the 12 Harpoons available (8 on Intruders, 4 on a P-3) and 4 HARMs I didn't have a lot of confidence. My fresh Tomcats splashed a pair of Fulcrums and their relief sent 2 more back to the barn. Here is where a lack of jammers cost me, I wasn't going to leave the Battle group without jammer support and my only other one had been used so much it was showing wing stress! So the attack went in without jammer support and of course the nearest ship (had more Flankers coming in so was doing a straight in and straight out strike) was the Sovremenny - 15 of 16 missiles were shot down or spoofed and only one Harpoon scored a hit - it just wasn't enough.

Down to 3 knts but with all the radars still emitting the missile must have hit near the waterline but it looked like they stopped the flooding because he survived to the end of the scenario.

Some good Special Actions and sound effects are setup and they add to the game. There are some F-15s available at a cost of 500VP but I didn't need them.

Anyway - fun scenario and easy to run in an evening.


SIDE: United States
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LOSSES:
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2x F-14A Tomcat


EXPENDITURES:
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33x AN/SSQ-62A DICASS
56x AN/SSQ-53A DIFAR
24x AIM-54A Phoenix
15x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
16x AIM-7M Sparrow III
6x Generic Flare Salvo [3x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
16x AN/SSQ-62B DICASS
9x AIM-9M Sidewinder
15x 20mm/85 M61A1 Vulcan Burst [100 rnds]
12x AGM-84D Harpoon IC
8x AGM-88A HARM



SIDE: Soviet Union
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LOSSES:
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9x MiG-31 Foxhound
2x Su-27P Flanker B
2x Tu-16R Badger E
1x Tu-16RM-1/2 Badger D


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
38x AA-9 Amos [R-33, SARH]
12x AA-6 Acrid F [R-40TD1, IR]
6x Generic Chaff Salvo [4x Cartridges]
2x Generic Flare Salvo [4x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
9x AA-10 Alamo C [R-27ER, LR TSARH]
42x SA-N-7 Gadfly [9M38]
18x SA-N-4b Gecko [9M33M3]
16x AK-130 130mm/54 Twin Frag Burst [2 rnds]
6x AK-630M 30mm/65 Gatling Burst [400 rnds]
24x PK-10 Chaff [SR-50]
6x PK-2 Chaff [TSP-47]

I want to say it's a great scenario, I've had similar results in my periodic playthroughs.

While I can 'Win' the Air battle, I find that US Forces don't have enough time or available firepower to sink one Soviet Ship, so I'm really not sure it's possible to get a 'Triumph'

I did manage to get a Triumph as the Americans WITHOUT sinking any Soviet ships, which I agree is very difficult for the reasons stated in this AAR. The trick was to completely wipe-out the 12-strong Backfire strike before it reached missile launch range, spotting them coming with Hawkeyes and having a CAP ambush waiting.

Never saw the Backfire strike, probably because I shot down the Badger snoopers at a good distance, they probably never got a sniff on my and didn't launch.

B

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

Thought I would give this one a go. Nice, quick scenario, ended with an Average score -1200 points.

Hey Gunner98

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.

I just played it, and my tomcats were hammered pretty hard by those Foxhounds. Although launching Phoenixes at around 60nm, the MiGs just laugh at them. I lost 11 Tomcats... but all the ejected pilots were safely rescued (+50 points each)

I eventually killed around 12 of the Foxhounds, plus 3 Flankers and 3 Badgers, but mostly with Sparrows and Sidewinders.

How did you use the Prowler? how close was it to the action?

I had mine patrolling at a safe distance... It is unclear the effective distance for the jamming in the db.

For the attack on the ships, I used the 2nd Orion coordinated with the Intruders. The Orion, at low altitude, launched its 4 harpoon, which triggered the radars of the enemy ships. Them my intruders launched the HARMs and right behind the remaining harpoons. I score 1 ship, one of the DDs I think.

Later, almost at the end when they were in range of my cruise missiles, and seeing how many SAMs they had spent trying to stop my harpoons, I gave a try to an attack with Tomahawks. It worked and the Kresta had dinner with the fish (+3000 points)

Also I used the Tomahawks for land attack to destroy most of the land based radars. I noticed though, that I could not attack the airbases themselves... my guess is that it is a scenario limitation to avoid destroying the soviet aviation and its airbases.

How did you use the Prowler? how close was it to the action?

Close enough to almost eat an AA-9... perhaps too close.

Using your jammers is a bit of a trick, I don't know for sure if I'm doing it right but what seems to work is:

-Split your Tomcats up 2 & 2, approach the bad guys from different angles but keeping about the same distance.
-Put your jammer between the Tomcat pairs a few dozen nm behind
-Bait the Migs to fire first.
-When the Migs fire, the F-14s that are the target should turn tail and run - afterburner if you have tankers up
-Jammer goes on now
-other pair of F-14s fire at the Migs and force them to break lock.
-Rinse & repeat until they are out of AA-9s
-Close in for the kill, your Tomcats will either get tail shots at them as they run away and you should be well within WRA range by now. Or better yet you get a Foxhound into a dogfight and watch it choke.