Chains of War 2 - God of War 1/7/18
Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2022 10:59 pm
Two months after the fighting over Korea, China moves to discipline her unco-operative Vietnamese neighbour and prevent that country’s armed forces from interfering in subsequent operations in the South China Sea region. As the Chinese commander, you are tasked with neutralising the Vietnamese Navy and Air Force.
To do this, you are given a formidable hand to play. Between Hainan and the Woody Island base in the Paracels, you have two Luyang-class destroyers, two Jiangdou-class corvettes and eight Houbei-class stealth PCFGs. Together, this task force has powerful air defence and strong anti-shipping missile capability, but is a little suspect on the ASW front.
Patrolling off Vietnam’s Camranh Bay naval base to the NE of Ho Chi Minh City are two Yuan-class diesel subs with good sonar, YJ-82 anti-shipping missiles and decent dual-purpose torpedoes.
China’s main strength lies in her air force. Spread across bases from Woody Island to Kunming in Yunnan to Shaodong in Hunan are an array of fighters, attack planes, bombers and support aircraft. Most of the fighters are Flankers, with some Finbacks and Firebirds and the majority each have six PL-12 A2A missiles with 50nm range and none of the ‘going blind’ issues common to less-advanced SARH weapons. To top these off, there is a squadron of the latest Mighty Dragon MRCAs, with stealth abilities and PL-15 missiles which have a range of 94nm. At the other end of the scale are some MiG-21 Fishbeds, which are best left on the ground.
In strike loadout mode, some of the Flankers have Russian-made Kazoo missiles, while the indigenously-produced Flounders wield KD-88 stand-off weapons and Krypton ARMs. There are two large squadrons of longer-ranged bombers, based on the Russian Badger and carrying YJ-83s for use against ships and KD-63s against all targets. The latter are carried by the H6K Badger variant, known as the God of War, hence the scenario title. These have a range of 160nm and do 500 points of damage.
In support, there are different types of Cub performing AEW, ELINT, OECM and ASW roles, some Badger and Midas tankers and a few UAVs with recon and combat capabilities, as well as three underpowered choppers operating off the ships.
In the event of a counterattack, China has several batteries of SAMs and some air search radars. Finally, a battery of CJ-10 SSMs stands ready to hit land targets up to 1,100nm away.
Vietnam is known to have two German-made Gepard missile frigates (Dinh Tien Hoangs), modified to use Switchblade SSMs at the expense of air defence, which is limited to MANPADs. These are supplemented by four HQ375 PCFGs, based on the Russian Tarantul class and with a similar armament. A couple of lightweight corvettes and patrol craft round-off the surface force. There are also five upgraded Kilo subs, carrying Sizzler anti-shipping missiles, but with inferior sonar and torpedoes to the Yuans. All of these units are based at Camranh Bay.
In the air, the Viets have three regiments of Flanker Gs and one of Flanker Bs, each with perhaps twelve aircraft and divided evenly between the N and S of the country. They also field a force of Fitter attack planes near Da Nang (halfway down the coast) and two regiments of obsolete Fishbeds in the Hanoi/Haiphong area.
There are strong air defence systems around Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, based around Gargoyle SAMs, backed-up by shorter-ranged SA-17 Grizzlies and Israeli-made SPYDER systems. Other parts of the country, like the two ports of Da Nang and Camranh Bay, have a lower level of protection.
Vietnam also has some Scud ballistic missiles, but their range is much less than that of the CJ-10 and they can only realistically threaten the immediate border area. They didn’t fire a shot in my playthrough.
From the Chinese perspective, the first task was to feel-out the enemy defences and draw-out their ships, planes and subs. Engaging them inside the SAM umbrella did not seem wise, especially as no Chinese ARMs outranged the Gargoyle. It would clearly be awkward to engage targets in the Ho Chi Minh City area due to range limitations, especially as Chinese tanker aircraft have modest refuelling capacity.
A major pain during the set-up and planning stage was a bug introduced in the Falklands upgrade, which prevents the player from amending EMCON Doctrine for more than one aircraft at a time. It was necessary to go through plane-by-plane, dismissing the annoying EMCON Obedience message each time. I’ve never seen the point of this message (or the other one which asks you to confirm divergence from ‘strict EMCON obedience’). The player has ordered it and that should be the end of the matter. The bug needs to be fixed and the above messages eliminated from the game for playability’s sake.
1/7/18 13:00L: I began by launching half the dozen SSMs at likely land targets. These took-out a couple of radars for a VP each, but the ones aimed at Bai Thuong airbase, SW of Hanoi were intercepted and downed by fighters.
A gun-armed HQ09 corvette was detected off Haiphong and promptly sunk by a YJ-83 from one of our Houbeis, but it scored no points. My ships otherwise remained idle all game, as there was no need for them.
Numerous Flankers and Fishbeds took-off from the Hanoi area bases and lots of mobile SAMs illuminated. A dogfight N of Hanoi saw 7 Viet Flankers and 12 Fishbeds downed without loss, the former scoring a point each, the latter deemed worthless. There was a Gargoyle site at Yen Bai, a Fishbed base NW of Hanoi, but its four shots were at long range and easily evaded by heading away on Burner. A Chinese Flanker then went Engaged Offensive at the AI’s whim and lunged into Gargoyle range, to be destroyed before I could react (-1VP). This behaviour was to be repeated several times and the player needs to watch for it carefully. In general, the Vietnamese fighters with their SARH Alamo missiles (and worse) were no match for the Chinese with more reliable PL-12 and PL-15 weapons, who were able to ‘shoot and scoot’ as if using AMRAAMs.
14:00: Two more Vietnamese Flankers and two Fishbeds were shot down for one Chinese Flanker as the battle over Northern Vietnam continued. One Viet plane made three successive 20% spoof rolls, though this was balanced by one of ours avoiding four Gargoyles after going Engaged Offensive. Four Mighty Dragons took advantage of a quick turnround time to make a second sortie and downed three more Flankers, with supporting Chinese fighters accounting for three more and a Fishbed.
15:00: The Hanoi battle began to subside, with three more MiG-21s shot down over Haiphong.
Meanwhile, some Finbacks from Hainan engaged Vietnamese CAP over Camranh Bay. This proved a very frustrating business, with our planes missing over and over again on roughly 50% chances and just one Flanker downed without loss, the Viets scarcely getting-off a shot in return. In the process, we covered the passage of an SSM which destroyed a Great Wall radar near Da Nang.
16:00: Vietnam counter-attacked rather feebly with a pair of Fitters, which were knocked-down by CAP from Hainan. By now, several ships had gotten underway from Camranh Bay and were being cautiously monitored and stalked by the two Yuans.
17:00: Fresh Vietnamese sorties in the Hanoi area. Two Fishbeds were destroyed over Haiphong and four Flankers to the NE of Bai Thuong, with the range of the Mighty Dragons’ PL-15s very useful.
18:00: Four Badgers attacked the Vietnamese fleet with YJ-83Ks, sinking a Dinh Tien Hoang and an HQ375 for a point each. Enemy CAP saved them from worse punishment.
19:00: Some Flankers gave distant chase to our retiring bombers and were intercepted by CAP from Hainan. In an unusual burst of good fortune, we downed five of the enemy without loss, again using PL-12s like AMRAAMs. At +25, the score was now Average.
A number of Spoon Rest mobile radars were popping-up across Vietnam and one was eliminated by our SSM battery.
Another Fishbed was picked-off over Haiphong.
20:00: A Flanker departed Bai Thuong and was shot down by our waiting fighters.
Six more Badgers attacked the enemy fleet off Camranh Bay, but 12 YJ-83s only managed to sink one HQ375, most being spoofed or malfunctioning. This shocking luck extended to the fight between the escort and six Viet Flankers, just one of which was destroyed without loss as the AI rolled 20% spoof chances repeatedly.
21:00: More frustrating skirmishes over Haiphong, with the virtual dice refusing to roll for us. We finally manged to hit an elusive Fishbed, only for a Gargoyle to destroy a Chinese Flanker with what seemed to be an out-of-range shot. A Mighty Dragon took down an enemy Flanker in reply.
22:00: I remembered that the Yuans carried anti-shipping missiles and (having loaded them) used these to sink the second Dinh Tien Hoang and an HQ375. Another YJ-82 malfunctioned against a weak HQ261 patrol boat and two more were downed by a Flanker just before they could eliminate the surviving HQ375 PCFG. Our duty fighters intercepted and destroyed one of the Viet fighters, loosing three PL-12s at it to make sure – the third one hit.
The remaining four YJ-83K carrying Badgers then finished-off the Vietnamese surface fleet, even though the HQ261 survived their initial volley due to another malfunction. This earned it our last three missiles, which blew it apart – not that it scored any VP.
23:00: Three Viet Flankers pursued the strike. Despite copious expenditure of ammo, two escorts got just one of them and a second pair went Bingo just before catching the others in an Afterburner stern chase. It seemed like playing at a harder difficulty level to normal dealing with this persistent misfortune.
2/7/18 00:00: As our H-6G Badgers could only load anti-shipping missiles or bombs, they were essentially out of the battle.
A Flounder visited Da Nang, taking-out a Bar Lock radar and disabling two Goa sites with Kryptons. Unfortunately, Flounders could not reach targets at Camranh Bay, though Krypton Flankers could. We also began probing the Hanoi/Haiphong air defences and picking-off exposed radars and older SAM sites around the perimeter.
02:00: As the outer defences of Hanoi continued to be eroded, a Chinese Flanker knocked-out a Bar Lock at Camranh Bay. Enemy Flankers intervened and our escorts shot one down without loss.
The last two Chinese SSMs destroyed a hangar at Da Nang airbase. This scored a VP, but we didn’t get any of the Fitters that were our main targets.
03:00: By now, we were running-out of feasible targets around Hanoi. What remained was too well-warded by Gargoyles.
Two escort Flankers heading for Camranh Bay encountered a Viet Flanker B en route. They needed 15 missiles to destroy it (5 10-20% spoof rolls and nine other misses at chances from 9-62%). We were lucky ourselves when, having closed to 10nm PL-10 range, we were missed twice on 75% odds by answering Archers, but the enemy plane should never have had the opportunity. Goes to show how random the aerial combat system is these days.
Six of our Flankers raided Bai Thuong airbase with Kazoos, with a dozen missiles accounting for just one hangar. Airfield attacks tend to be low percentage affairs.
04:00: By now, the Vietnamese radars and SAMs at Camranh Bay were switched-off, frustrating one of our SEAD planes. An enemy Flanker appeared and was pincered between the Krypton carrier and its two-plane escort. It needed seven shots to destroy it.
07:00: With daybreak came a 14-bomber God of War raid on Camranh Bay, intended to destroy the naval piers and, hopefully, any Vietnamese subs moored there. Four enemy Flankers intervened and three were destroyed by the escort, but they took a toll of the incoming KD63s. The missiles that got through destroyed two large buildings, two diesel bunkers and two of the eight piers, but no subs were home. This took the score to +59 and a Minor Victory.
08:00: By now, options were limited. I couldn’t use the Badgers again, the enemy subs were hard to find and the Flankers made it risky to use Cub ASW planes near Camranh Bay. It seemed best to chip away at Da Nang and Bai Thuong while trying to bring the surviving Vietnamese fighters to battle.
A Flounder strike on Da Nang with KD88 missiles took-out another empty hangar and destroyed the control tower.
09:00: A SEAD Flanker blinded two Guideline sites at Camranh Bay after escorting fighters tempted them into lighting up by flying into range. This trick was repeated later.
Another SEAD plane hosed-down the remaining Goas and Guidelines near Haiphong, disabling the lot and somehow scoring a VP in the process.
10:00: The last Viet Flanker at Bai Thuong sortied and a Mighty Dragon actually hit it first time on 51% - a rare event indeed!.
11:00: A six-plane Kazoo strike on Da Nang finally found some hangars with Fitters in them, wrecking four planes on the ground. This took the score into Major Victory territory.
13:00: More Spoon Rest radars appeared SE of Da Nang and all three were extinguished by our SEAD planes.
Two Mighty Dragons demonstrated their strike capability, using LS-6-500 missiles to destroy 3 Fitters and two hangars at Da Nang.
14:00: A second pair of Dragons followed-up and destroyed another two hangars and six more Fitters. This took the score to +89 and the scenario promptly terminated as a Triumph.
China lost 3 Flanker Bs. Vietnam lost 2 frigates, 4 PCFGs, a corvette, a patrol boat, 37 Flankers, 22 Fishbeds, 15 Fitters, 16 radars, 38 SAM elements and 20 installations.
Overall, this was a more challenging scenario than Blue Dawn, but still relatively easy. The Vietnamese resembled a highish-tech punchbag for most of it, making little attempt to counterattack. The hardest aspects were finding the subs and operating at extended range over Southern Vietnam. Towards the end of the game, I moved a Cub ASW plane into the Camranh Bay area under heavy escort, but neither it nor the Yuans ever detected anything.
My main worry throughout was how to fight these impressive Chinese units in later scenarios. PL-15 and PL-12 missiles are highly effective and most fighters carry 6 of the latter, while Chinese strike and air defence capabilities are very strong. Possible weaknesses include limited in-flight refuelling and rather modest ASW assets. It seems that I’ll get a chance to exploit the latter as the Americans next time...
To do this, you are given a formidable hand to play. Between Hainan and the Woody Island base in the Paracels, you have two Luyang-class destroyers, two Jiangdou-class corvettes and eight Houbei-class stealth PCFGs. Together, this task force has powerful air defence and strong anti-shipping missile capability, but is a little suspect on the ASW front.
Patrolling off Vietnam’s Camranh Bay naval base to the NE of Ho Chi Minh City are two Yuan-class diesel subs with good sonar, YJ-82 anti-shipping missiles and decent dual-purpose torpedoes.
China’s main strength lies in her air force. Spread across bases from Woody Island to Kunming in Yunnan to Shaodong in Hunan are an array of fighters, attack planes, bombers and support aircraft. Most of the fighters are Flankers, with some Finbacks and Firebirds and the majority each have six PL-12 A2A missiles with 50nm range and none of the ‘going blind’ issues common to less-advanced SARH weapons. To top these off, there is a squadron of the latest Mighty Dragon MRCAs, with stealth abilities and PL-15 missiles which have a range of 94nm. At the other end of the scale are some MiG-21 Fishbeds, which are best left on the ground.
In strike loadout mode, some of the Flankers have Russian-made Kazoo missiles, while the indigenously-produced Flounders wield KD-88 stand-off weapons and Krypton ARMs. There are two large squadrons of longer-ranged bombers, based on the Russian Badger and carrying YJ-83s for use against ships and KD-63s against all targets. The latter are carried by the H6K Badger variant, known as the God of War, hence the scenario title. These have a range of 160nm and do 500 points of damage.
In support, there are different types of Cub performing AEW, ELINT, OECM and ASW roles, some Badger and Midas tankers and a few UAVs with recon and combat capabilities, as well as three underpowered choppers operating off the ships.
In the event of a counterattack, China has several batteries of SAMs and some air search radars. Finally, a battery of CJ-10 SSMs stands ready to hit land targets up to 1,100nm away.
Vietnam is known to have two German-made Gepard missile frigates (Dinh Tien Hoangs), modified to use Switchblade SSMs at the expense of air defence, which is limited to MANPADs. These are supplemented by four HQ375 PCFGs, based on the Russian Tarantul class and with a similar armament. A couple of lightweight corvettes and patrol craft round-off the surface force. There are also five upgraded Kilo subs, carrying Sizzler anti-shipping missiles, but with inferior sonar and torpedoes to the Yuans. All of these units are based at Camranh Bay.
In the air, the Viets have three regiments of Flanker Gs and one of Flanker Bs, each with perhaps twelve aircraft and divided evenly between the N and S of the country. They also field a force of Fitter attack planes near Da Nang (halfway down the coast) and two regiments of obsolete Fishbeds in the Hanoi/Haiphong area.
There are strong air defence systems around Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, based around Gargoyle SAMs, backed-up by shorter-ranged SA-17 Grizzlies and Israeli-made SPYDER systems. Other parts of the country, like the two ports of Da Nang and Camranh Bay, have a lower level of protection.
Vietnam also has some Scud ballistic missiles, but their range is much less than that of the CJ-10 and they can only realistically threaten the immediate border area. They didn’t fire a shot in my playthrough.
From the Chinese perspective, the first task was to feel-out the enemy defences and draw-out their ships, planes and subs. Engaging them inside the SAM umbrella did not seem wise, especially as no Chinese ARMs outranged the Gargoyle. It would clearly be awkward to engage targets in the Ho Chi Minh City area due to range limitations, especially as Chinese tanker aircraft have modest refuelling capacity.
A major pain during the set-up and planning stage was a bug introduced in the Falklands upgrade, which prevents the player from amending EMCON Doctrine for more than one aircraft at a time. It was necessary to go through plane-by-plane, dismissing the annoying EMCON Obedience message each time. I’ve never seen the point of this message (or the other one which asks you to confirm divergence from ‘strict EMCON obedience’). The player has ordered it and that should be the end of the matter. The bug needs to be fixed and the above messages eliminated from the game for playability’s sake.
1/7/18 13:00L: I began by launching half the dozen SSMs at likely land targets. These took-out a couple of radars for a VP each, but the ones aimed at Bai Thuong airbase, SW of Hanoi were intercepted and downed by fighters.
A gun-armed HQ09 corvette was detected off Haiphong and promptly sunk by a YJ-83 from one of our Houbeis, but it scored no points. My ships otherwise remained idle all game, as there was no need for them.
Numerous Flankers and Fishbeds took-off from the Hanoi area bases and lots of mobile SAMs illuminated. A dogfight N of Hanoi saw 7 Viet Flankers and 12 Fishbeds downed without loss, the former scoring a point each, the latter deemed worthless. There was a Gargoyle site at Yen Bai, a Fishbed base NW of Hanoi, but its four shots were at long range and easily evaded by heading away on Burner. A Chinese Flanker then went Engaged Offensive at the AI’s whim and lunged into Gargoyle range, to be destroyed before I could react (-1VP). This behaviour was to be repeated several times and the player needs to watch for it carefully. In general, the Vietnamese fighters with their SARH Alamo missiles (and worse) were no match for the Chinese with more reliable PL-12 and PL-15 weapons, who were able to ‘shoot and scoot’ as if using AMRAAMs.
14:00: Two more Vietnamese Flankers and two Fishbeds were shot down for one Chinese Flanker as the battle over Northern Vietnam continued. One Viet plane made three successive 20% spoof rolls, though this was balanced by one of ours avoiding four Gargoyles after going Engaged Offensive. Four Mighty Dragons took advantage of a quick turnround time to make a second sortie and downed three more Flankers, with supporting Chinese fighters accounting for three more and a Fishbed.
15:00: The Hanoi battle began to subside, with three more MiG-21s shot down over Haiphong.
Meanwhile, some Finbacks from Hainan engaged Vietnamese CAP over Camranh Bay. This proved a very frustrating business, with our planes missing over and over again on roughly 50% chances and just one Flanker downed without loss, the Viets scarcely getting-off a shot in return. In the process, we covered the passage of an SSM which destroyed a Great Wall radar near Da Nang.
16:00: Vietnam counter-attacked rather feebly with a pair of Fitters, which were knocked-down by CAP from Hainan. By now, several ships had gotten underway from Camranh Bay and were being cautiously monitored and stalked by the two Yuans.
17:00: Fresh Vietnamese sorties in the Hanoi area. Two Fishbeds were destroyed over Haiphong and four Flankers to the NE of Bai Thuong, with the range of the Mighty Dragons’ PL-15s very useful.
18:00: Four Badgers attacked the Vietnamese fleet with YJ-83Ks, sinking a Dinh Tien Hoang and an HQ375 for a point each. Enemy CAP saved them from worse punishment.
19:00: Some Flankers gave distant chase to our retiring bombers and were intercepted by CAP from Hainan. In an unusual burst of good fortune, we downed five of the enemy without loss, again using PL-12s like AMRAAMs. At +25, the score was now Average.
A number of Spoon Rest mobile radars were popping-up across Vietnam and one was eliminated by our SSM battery.
Another Fishbed was picked-off over Haiphong.
20:00: A Flanker departed Bai Thuong and was shot down by our waiting fighters.
Six more Badgers attacked the enemy fleet off Camranh Bay, but 12 YJ-83s only managed to sink one HQ375, most being spoofed or malfunctioning. This shocking luck extended to the fight between the escort and six Viet Flankers, just one of which was destroyed without loss as the AI rolled 20% spoof chances repeatedly.
21:00: More frustrating skirmishes over Haiphong, with the virtual dice refusing to roll for us. We finally manged to hit an elusive Fishbed, only for a Gargoyle to destroy a Chinese Flanker with what seemed to be an out-of-range shot. A Mighty Dragon took down an enemy Flanker in reply.
22:00: I remembered that the Yuans carried anti-shipping missiles and (having loaded them) used these to sink the second Dinh Tien Hoang and an HQ375. Another YJ-82 malfunctioned against a weak HQ261 patrol boat and two more were downed by a Flanker just before they could eliminate the surviving HQ375 PCFG. Our duty fighters intercepted and destroyed one of the Viet fighters, loosing three PL-12s at it to make sure – the third one hit.
The remaining four YJ-83K carrying Badgers then finished-off the Vietnamese surface fleet, even though the HQ261 survived their initial volley due to another malfunction. This earned it our last three missiles, which blew it apart – not that it scored any VP.
23:00: Three Viet Flankers pursued the strike. Despite copious expenditure of ammo, two escorts got just one of them and a second pair went Bingo just before catching the others in an Afterburner stern chase. It seemed like playing at a harder difficulty level to normal dealing with this persistent misfortune.
2/7/18 00:00: As our H-6G Badgers could only load anti-shipping missiles or bombs, they were essentially out of the battle.
A Flounder visited Da Nang, taking-out a Bar Lock radar and disabling two Goa sites with Kryptons. Unfortunately, Flounders could not reach targets at Camranh Bay, though Krypton Flankers could. We also began probing the Hanoi/Haiphong air defences and picking-off exposed radars and older SAM sites around the perimeter.
02:00: As the outer defences of Hanoi continued to be eroded, a Chinese Flanker knocked-out a Bar Lock at Camranh Bay. Enemy Flankers intervened and our escorts shot one down without loss.
The last two Chinese SSMs destroyed a hangar at Da Nang airbase. This scored a VP, but we didn’t get any of the Fitters that were our main targets.
03:00: By now, we were running-out of feasible targets around Hanoi. What remained was too well-warded by Gargoyles.
Two escort Flankers heading for Camranh Bay encountered a Viet Flanker B en route. They needed 15 missiles to destroy it (5 10-20% spoof rolls and nine other misses at chances from 9-62%). We were lucky ourselves when, having closed to 10nm PL-10 range, we were missed twice on 75% odds by answering Archers, but the enemy plane should never have had the opportunity. Goes to show how random the aerial combat system is these days.
Six of our Flankers raided Bai Thuong airbase with Kazoos, with a dozen missiles accounting for just one hangar. Airfield attacks tend to be low percentage affairs.
04:00: By now, the Vietnamese radars and SAMs at Camranh Bay were switched-off, frustrating one of our SEAD planes. An enemy Flanker appeared and was pincered between the Krypton carrier and its two-plane escort. It needed seven shots to destroy it.
07:00: With daybreak came a 14-bomber God of War raid on Camranh Bay, intended to destroy the naval piers and, hopefully, any Vietnamese subs moored there. Four enemy Flankers intervened and three were destroyed by the escort, but they took a toll of the incoming KD63s. The missiles that got through destroyed two large buildings, two diesel bunkers and two of the eight piers, but no subs were home. This took the score to +59 and a Minor Victory.
08:00: By now, options were limited. I couldn’t use the Badgers again, the enemy subs were hard to find and the Flankers made it risky to use Cub ASW planes near Camranh Bay. It seemed best to chip away at Da Nang and Bai Thuong while trying to bring the surviving Vietnamese fighters to battle.
A Flounder strike on Da Nang with KD88 missiles took-out another empty hangar and destroyed the control tower.
09:00: A SEAD Flanker blinded two Guideline sites at Camranh Bay after escorting fighters tempted them into lighting up by flying into range. This trick was repeated later.
Another SEAD plane hosed-down the remaining Goas and Guidelines near Haiphong, disabling the lot and somehow scoring a VP in the process.
10:00: The last Viet Flanker at Bai Thuong sortied and a Mighty Dragon actually hit it first time on 51% - a rare event indeed!.
11:00: A six-plane Kazoo strike on Da Nang finally found some hangars with Fitters in them, wrecking four planes on the ground. This took the score into Major Victory territory.
13:00: More Spoon Rest radars appeared SE of Da Nang and all three were extinguished by our SEAD planes.
Two Mighty Dragons demonstrated their strike capability, using LS-6-500 missiles to destroy 3 Fitters and two hangars at Da Nang.
14:00: A second pair of Dragons followed-up and destroyed another two hangars and six more Fitters. This took the score to +89 and the scenario promptly terminated as a Triumph.
China lost 3 Flanker Bs. Vietnam lost 2 frigates, 4 PCFGs, a corvette, a patrol boat, 37 Flankers, 22 Fishbeds, 15 Fitters, 16 radars, 38 SAM elements and 20 installations.
Overall, this was a more challenging scenario than Blue Dawn, but still relatively easy. The Vietnamese resembled a highish-tech punchbag for most of it, making little attempt to counterattack. The hardest aspects were finding the subs and operating at extended range over Southern Vietnam. Towards the end of the game, I moved a Cub ASW plane into the Camranh Bay area under heavy escort, but neither it nor the Yuans ever detected anything.
My main worry throughout was how to fight these impressive Chinese units in later scenarios. PL-15 and PL-12 missiles are highly effective and most fighters carry 6 of the latter, while Chinese strike and air defence capabilities are very strong. Possible weaknesses include limited in-flight refuelling and rather modest ASW assets. It seems that I’ll get a chance to exploit the latter as the Americans next time...
