Angamos Goes the Distance 1980

[fitzpatv]

Thought this one might be good practice before I tackle the next Northern Fury scenario, as it's also a single submarine affair. The Peruvian diesel sub Angamos has to pick-up some spies off the Chilean port of Iquique back in the Pinochet era, ideally while remaining undetected. Chilean forces in the area consist of a pair of frigates with weak sonar, backed-up by an Oberon-class diesel sub with rather better sonar (40nm range to Angamos's 15).

As Angamos has a considerable distance to sail to the pick-up zone, she can't afford to hang about and has to compromise between doing 16 knots just over the layer and 10 knots at periscope depth while recharging batteries. This combination should just about do the job.

It took two attempts to win it. On the first try, I evaded the first of the frigates and steered to landward in an effort to sneak down the coast. Unfortunately, I was making my way happily along when I suddenly lost the sub and the game. Pow!. The Message Log told me I'd hit a mine, which was below the belt (in more ways than one!) as minefields were neither mentioned in the Briefing, nor in Browse Scenario Platforms. Sure, minefields can exist, but the Chileans could also have had a couple of P-3 Orions that weren't in their OOB. You have to draw the line somewhere. It illustrated why I don't particularly like single-submarine scenarios.

Learning from this, I kept well out to seaward of the Chilean frigates on my second attempt. The USA provides Peru with satellite data, which gives a decent idea of where the enemy are. On this occasion, it also gave away the position of the Chilean sub, which was not lurking around the pick-up zone as I'd feared. On this basis, I was able to move straight into the latter on arrival with little fear of interception, though I did have to dive to evade an Alouette recon chopper that happened to come over at the wrong moment (before running out of endurance and RTB'ing).

Once I was in the pick-up zone, a boat carrying the spies was detected. The Briefing tells you to move within 100m, surface and wait until the pick-up is completed. However, this is problematic, as neither vessel will move towards the other for more than a couple of seconds before grinding to a full stop. This bug caused a lot of frustration until I'd inched within rendezvous range, at which point an ill-timed satellite flypast revealed a Chilean frigate about 10nm away, causing Angamos to dive. Back to Square One.

With nothing to lose, I overrode Doctrine, surfaced again and this time managed to collect the agents (100VP). The frigate didn't see me and it was then relatively easy to escape to seaward and make for home.

Steering around the frigates and sub, I just made it to the escape zone in Peruvian waters before the time limit. Unfortunately, you have to be there early to get the extra 100VP for a Triumph. I let the clock run on after the scenario end and found that I needed another 13 minutes!! On this basis, I reasoned that the Peruvian authorities would not mind that much that I'd been fractionally late and counted it as a Triumph.

A reasonable game, but frustrating at times due to the bugs and issues mentioned above.